Ride
by darkstorm5000
Summary: After learning that Madame Hydra is alive and back in true-form, Wolverine and X-23 head out on an adventure that will take them to Madripoor and beyond!
1. Another Part of Me

Ride

Written by Darkstorm5000

Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.

**xxx**

Chapter 1- Another Part of Me

Just off the coast of the tiny island nation of Madripoor, the freightliner christened the S.P.M. Sovereign Lady is slowly hauling its substantial cargo in to the independent principality's main sea-port. But the unsuspecting crew of this ship, who themselves were now more pre-occupied with anticipation of soon being able to step foot back onto dry land again than anything else, were blissfully unaware that they had brought along with them additional cargo in the form of two stowaways. Which is what their unauthorized guests were, despite the well-intentioned reason and purpose behind their sneaking aboard this freighter before its departure out to sea.

For these two water-weary travelers, it had been an extended journey over these last several days that had given them more than ample opportunity to reflect on the circumstances that had brought them all of the way to this region of the Asian-Pacific rim. And, time enough to come to terms with what their next move would be upon their arrival. For the man known as Logan, a name he has gone by for as far back as his troubled memories will allow, he realizes and understands perfectly what they're doing here.

And more importantly, exactly what it is that they're here to do.

For a simple reminder of those facts, all Logan need do is take a quick glance across the broad interior of this SHIELD-modified shipping container, which for the duration of this voyage has served as a shared living-quarters for him and the young girl currently seated atop the other cot in there. A girl who, while dressed in a casual pair of green-blue plaid boxers and a plain white tank-top that seemed to fashionably compliment Logan's own white muscle-undershirt and faded jeans, herself also bore a strikingly uncanny resemblance to him.

For Laura, which for her has been the only other name that she's ever known besides the X-23 designation assigned to her at birth, it is because of everything that has happened in her short life since that fateful day that she has come here to Madripoor. That, she has come here to find the woman responsible for heaping such horrendous abuse and mistreatment upon her during her upbringing, the woman formerly known as Madame Hydra.

After learning that the now ex-HYDRA leader had survived the destruction of one of their airborne motherships, just as Laura had also managed to do, Logan knew that it was less than a matter of time before his young companion would find her way here. His only hope was that Laura's coming here to seek out this woman, who was now operating under the slightly more serpentine, yet equally as appropriate alias of Viper, wouldn't end up undoing all of the progress that she had made in working to create a new life for herself in Bayville. That even though they were here 'officially' to help Nick Fury and SHIELD break up Viper's illegal smuggling operation, Logan knew that this was really about things far more personal than that between their primary target and Laura. And, was the overriding impetus behind Logan's decision to tag along with her for the ride.

Logan couldn't find the words to express the pride that he had felt in watching just how much Laura had grown and changed (for the better, he might add) in these last few months. Now, she was so far-removed from that withdrawn and isolated young lady that she was in those days when she had first come to live at the Xavier Institute, and he'd be damned if he was going to idly stand by and watch her just throw all of that away!

Especially, since Logan blamed himself for the disturbing state that Laura had fallen into when he found her months ago working out on that street-corner in the middle of the night, on the verge of an emotional breakdown and no longer able to cope with who she was or with the unspeakable acts of violence that she had been made to commit on HYDRA's behalf. Logan swore to himself from that point on that never again would he leave this young girl to feel as though she were alone in all of this. That, she would know that she always had someone there that she could turn to, to count on, who could understand better than anyone what she'd been through.

"We'll be pullin' into port here pretty soon." Logan now said, as he briefly looked at the small screen of the handheld GPS device in his grasp, before tossing this piece of SHIELD-designed technology back over onto his own currently unoccupied cot.

"Yeah, I know." Laura succinctly replied without even looking up at him, hearing Logan's comment over the music coming from her pod-player through her headphones. Which, was cranked up to its maximum volume with Dazzler's latest single pumping through them.

Logan just looked over at this girl sitting cross-legged on top of her cot for a moment, who was simultaneously occupied with listening to her music and reading through some kind of fashion mag, knowing that her response wasn't intended to be some kind of smart-ass remark. Rather, that given her own extensive training and mutant hyper-senses, Laura had in all likelihood been taking mental notes of the freighter's traveling speed and was able to calculate their estimated time of arrival herself.

Before turning back in his seat to look at the flat-screen television suspended from hydraulic ceiling-mounts above, where a pirated television signal was currently broadcasting a language-dubbed rerun of a classic SNL episode featuring John Belushi and a samurai-sword at the moment, Logan once again took notice of that petite girl seated across from him. Of particular note now were the numerous chocolate-bar wrappers scattered on the cot around her, one of the several small amenities afforded to them out in this climate-controlled steel shipping crate.

It seemed that Laura had as of late developed a strong inclination for chocolate, partially because they were a guilty pleasure that had been denied her until coming to live at the Institute. But like her pod-player, they were now another favorite item of her's. So much so, that Laura was rarely seen around the mansion without a candy bar in her possession. And much to the chagrin of the majority of her female classmates at the Institute, since Laura's accelerated metabolism allowed her to eat as much of it as she wanted without even the slightest hint of gaining an ounce of cellulite from them. But, Logan also saw that there was something else, something psychologically deeper going on in her behavior that bordered on, and probably crossed the line, into extreme over-indulgence.

Knowing first-hand how people, when while trying to kick one addictive habit can and often will wind up substituting in another one in its place, Logan wasn't too surprised by what he was seeing. Given what he knew about what Laura had been through, and taking into consideration the tremendous psychological scarring that the girl was obviously still struggling with. The fact that the self-inflicted physical slash-marks that had covered both of her arms when he initially found her this last time had by now completely disappeared, and that no new ones had been slit to take their place, Logan would contend that binging on junk-food was most likely the best of the coping alternatives that they could hope for in her case.

At least, for the time being.

**xxx**

A short time later the occupants of this specially-furnished freight container were now preparing to leave its confines, which would be for the first time in over a week, and begin the next phase of their mission.

"Ok, I'm ready." Laura now said, as she exited from the very modestly-sized lavatory within the container, now dressed in a sepia brown jacket-pant combo that she had just literally changed into within a matter of a couple of minutes after their ship had docked at port.

But, as she re-entered this general living area while pulling the zipper on the top-half of her form-fitting outfit up to its highest position just below her neckline and pulled her black-rimmed, orange-tinted astro sunglasses down into position from above her face, Laura saw that she wasn't the only one who had been making a wardrobe adjustment just now.

"What...is that supposed to be?" Laura suddenly asked, her composure now showing the briefest of disruptions as she tried to hide what appeared to be the sound of laughter.

It was a question that caught Logan a bit by surprise, as evidenced by his lack of any kind of immediate response. The astonishment that had washed over him came in part from the fact that he was unsure of what she was talking about. But mostly, it was because this was the first time that Logan could remember hearing anything that even closely resembled a heartfelt laugh coming from Laura.

"You wanna tell me what's so damn funny?" Logan replied, while non-chalantly leaning back up against a far side wall across from her. Although he was still wearing the same pair of jeans and white muscleshirt, he had gone and put on a faded gray windbreaker over it along with a matching gray bucket-hat.

But, what had managed to draw such an animated reaction from Laura was the other accessory that Logan was now sporting.

"What's that thing over your eye?" Laura went ahead and clarified for Logan, with the slightest hint of a giggle still evident in her voice as she pointed in his general direction.

"This? It's an eyepatch." Logan told her, as he grabbed it and stretched it out a few of inches in front of his face, before letting it snap back into place.

"I know what it is. What I'm wondering, is why in the world do you have one on?" Laura further explained.

"It's called a disguise. So, I can move around Madripoor incognito." Logan told her.

"Yeah, like no one's gonna recognize you just because you have that thing on." Laura snickered and more than eagerly pointed out for Logan's benefit, "Besides, it'd probably be more convincing if it didn't make you stick out even more like some lame-ass Nick Fury knock-off."

And with that Laura had unequivocally gotten her point across to Logan, judging by his momentary pause of contemplation, followed by his next reaction.

"**Dammit**!"

Was the expletive he exclaimed as Logan ripped his eyepatch off of his face, tossing it aside in favor of sporting a more...uncluttered look.

"You know, I think I'm startin' to miss those days when you hardly wanted to say anything, to anyone." Logan looked over and told Laura in a sarcastically-gruff tone, "C'mon, let's get goin'."

The pair then turned to head over towards the shipping container's escape hatch with Laura now following closely behind Logan, the both of them ready to get this show on the road.

**xxx**

After exiting the shipping container that they had called home for the first time in several days, Logan and Laura briefly stopped and silently stood on top of its rusting exterior to bask in the unfiltered nighttime air. Looking out past the hundreds of other similar containers surrounding them on the gigantic flat hull of this expansive freightliner, what they saw before them was a brightly-lit city teeming with life.

Or more accurately, what they saw was one-half of a city that exuded this pinnacle of modern architecture and technology. Which, stood in stark contrast to its almost step-sisterly other-half, as evidenced by the commensurably ramshackle and squalid state of this parallel lower portion of Madripoor's capital city. But, it was a side of the city that still beckoned to these two freshly arrived heroes, even if it did so in a manner uniquely exclusive to each.

"Wrong way, kiddo." Logan said to Laura after they had stealthily made their way off of the ship, and were now about to leave the docks to enter one of the adjacent avenues leading into Lowtown, "We need to be headin' down this way."

"I know where I'm going!" Laura replied, doing so in that special tone she used whenever she wanted to remind Logan that she wasn't just 'some kid', "I have old contacts over on the other side of Lowtown that I want to look up, see if I can dig up any useful info from them."

Then, just as she was about duck off into a darkened alley nearby, Laura turned back to say one more thing to her shipmate.

"I'll meet up with you later, back at the rendezvous point." Laura said while looking over her left shoulder back at Logan with a slight smirk on her face.

And with that, both it and her were just as quickly gone.

Left behind was a man, who when accompanied on missions by students' from the Institute, usually found himself falling into the role of field-instructor. Or in his words, of being a glorified babysitter. But Logan was well-aware of the fact that Laura was more than capable of holding her own in any combat situation. She should be, after-all, since she had been bred from birth to be the perfect little soldier.

The perfect killing machine.

And even as an old soldier himself, Logan had no qualms in admitting that her skills in the art of death rivaled his own, if not surpassed them in some ways. Which, is why he let her go off on her own without so much as a peep from him in protest, knowing that she was professional enough to operate on her own without making some rookie mistake that would wind up compromising them here.

No, what had Logan concerned was the ultimate endgame to all of this. Knowing full-well how far Laura had gone last time in her quest for revenge against the woman who had orchestrated such a torturous upbringing for her, and how she had nearly destroyed herself in the process, he wondered if this rematch wouldn't wind up just finishing the job? Even, in spite of his own best efforts to the contrary.

**xxx**

After Laura had made her departure into Lowtown, Logan soon did the same and headed off for a favorite jaunt of his in the form of an establishment called the Princess Bar, to see what information he too could rustle up. Meanwhile, his and his young partner-in-claws' arrival into this sovereign principality had not gone totally unnoticed.

Maintaining a network of well-paid informants drawn from a multitude of diverse areas and occupations to continuously observe and report back to you any and all suspicious activity, regardless of how mundane or trivial it may appear to be on the surface, might seem like a tremendous waste of resources to most. But, for someone who'd become so acclimated with the underworld protocols of espionage and covert operations in her life, the woman once known as Madam Hydra has learned in her experience that it was always best to leave no detail to chance. Particularly in a place like Madripoor where every local crimelord, regardless of how legitimate a claim they may actually have to such a title, was looking to gain any advantage in eliminating their competition.

And, having such an asset at your disposal could come in handy as well in the off-chance that a dockyard worker would unknowingly spot a pair of enemies from your past unceremoniously exiting a freight-container, who were now fervently on their way to seek you out.

Near the dockyards, and ironically enough not too far from where Logan and Laura had just disembarked, sat a warehouse in a row of many just like it. One, whose true function went beyond the simple facade of its exterior as a legitimate import/export business, all thanks to its current occupants. Who themselves also happened to be the principal objects of Logan and Laura's attention at the moment.

"I came to inform you that we will be receiving some unexpected company." A voice with a markedly Eastern European accent said, as the other person to whom she had just spoken to in this darkened upper-level control room turned around to acknowledge her presence.

"And, these unexpected 'guests' would be?" Keniuchio Harada, the man better known in international circles as The Silver Samurai replied, having turned his attention away from a pirated American television program, which he had come to deem as an offense to his own sensibilities and a complete waste of his time, now rotated his chair to see that his partner and complicit accomplice was standing in the doorway behind him.

"Wolverine and X-23. I believe that you are familiar with the former." Viper revealed, now crossing the room wearing a forest-green sports bra and shorts set. She also had a medium-sized green towel draped down from behind her neck to dab away any remaining perspiration that remained from the intense combat training session that she had been engaged in with her most elite Snake-Men soldiers.

That is, before a communication from one of her local informants' with an acutely descriptive account of two individuals that he had just seen brought her workout to an abrupt end.

"Quite." Harada answered in response to her query about his familiarity with the man known as Wolverine as he stood up from his chair, his towering and muscularly imposing frame currently wrapped in a traditional blue kimono robe with gold and red embroidery-print on it.

Harada then took the towel that was sitting just below Viper's hunter green-tinted hair across her shoulders and carefully ran it down one side of her body and then back up the other, ensuring that no part of her had been neglected. All parts of her, except those for which perspiring was no longer a concern, such as her cybernetically-repaired left knee and thigh that was cleary visible thanks to the tight green biker shorts that she had worn during her workout. It was one of several physical enhancements that Viper had received following her near-death experience, though the others were nowhere near as apparent to the naked-eye and all could be regarded as true improvements rather than the handicaps that one might expect.

Harada then looked down at this woman whom he considered to be his equal in almost every manner, one of only a select few individuals he would ever give such consideration. Running his hand over the subtle facial scars that remained on one side of her face, which were usually covered by the concealing manner that her hairstyle parted her bangs over to that side of her face, but that Viper seemingly wore as a badge of honor, Harada stood and stared deep down into her eyes. Eyes, which were of such an unusual harlequin-shade that he had always wondered if they were her natural color, or if like the cicatrice on her face, were merely the other equative representation of her at times erratically gentle and violent temperaments.

"I am to assume then that you have something in mind for our uninvited interlopers?" Harada half-surmised, now taking the towel and wrapping it around Viper's scantily-clad upper torso.

"Darling, I always have something in mind. "Viper ominously replied, offering a toothy grin that revealed small fang-like protusions, almost as a way of adding indisputable emphasis to her final point.

**xxx**

**Next chapter**: Let's get it on!


	2. Get it on Bang a Gong, pt I

Ride 

Written by Darkstorm5000

Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.

**xxx**

Chapter 2- Get It On (Bang A Gong), pt I

Location: _The Sovereign Principality of Madripoor_

It is on this tiny Pacific island nation that visitors', both near and from a far, have gathered to serve as spectators' to the infamous martial arts tournament held here on a biennial basis. And in spite of the unofficial sanctioning of this event, with those in government posts tasked with prosecuting such illegal activities having preferred instead to turn a blind-eye to its existence (as seems to be the norm with many things in this sovereign nation), it is still a spectacle that manages to draw a wealthy and very select crowd. And in doing so, has inadvertently helped in providing the perfect cover for two of the recent arrivals to Madripoor.

"Fury must've been the one who picked this outfit out for me personally, as his own little way of getting back at me." Were the opinionated words now being spoken by Laura, as she re-entered these main living quarters from her bedroom, all located within the ambassador suite at the prestigious Sovereign Hotel. These were very expensive accommodations, which had been secretly provided courtesy of SHIELD and that she was obviously sharing with another person as evidenced by the reply made to her remark.

"I don't know, I don't think it looks so bad." Her traveling companion responded, with Logan offering up his own unfettered observations of Laura and her attire.

Which, were of this young lady now standing before him wearing a little black cocktail dress. A knee-length, strapless number with minimal sequining to offer an informally elegant look that was meant to intentionally draw eyes to all of the right places, for all of the right reasons.

"You're just saying that so I won't go off and start ripping this dress, and everything else around here, to shreds." A still unassured Laura replied, as she fidgeted a bit while checking that this dress, her hair, makeup, and every other detail regarding her appearance was in place, with her enhanced eyesight allowing her to easily look at her own faint reflection in a large window that sat over on the far side of their suite.

"Kid...Laura, you know I ain't ever tried to be anything but straight with you." Logan said, as he now stood up from the standard tan and maroon-striped hotel armchair that he had been seated in while waiting for Laura and then started over towards her, dressed himself in a customary black and white tuxedo suit, "Besides, you really do look nice, ya oughta wear one of those more often. Plus, I figured you'd love it since it gives you a better excuse to wear open shoes like that, so those talons' of yours can breathe more easily. If need be."

While Logan pointed down to the black open-toe heels that she had on, referring of course to the single claws that had been surgically grafted into each of her feet, Laura took a moment to look up at this man now standing right in front of her. Who had apparently gone through a lot of trouble, including consulting with more expert advice from the fashion arena over on Jasmine Row, before being the one who had ultimately selected this outfit for her.

"Thanks." Laura paused and then appreciatively told Logan, while nervously pushing the jet-black tresses that had been specially styled for this evening back from in front of her face.

Her reason for so quickly changing her tune had to do with her belief that Logan had been the only person who had ever been honest with her, even to the point of brutal honesty when necessary, and seemed to genuinely care about her in a way that no one else had. It was why she tended to trust him and what he said generally without question. Even, when it came to the fatherl...to the advice that he so often tried to impart upon her.

"You look nice too. For a guy in a monkey-suit, that is." Laura now told Logan, while tossing in a slight verbal jab at him along with it.

"Tell me about it!" Logan exhaled in full agreement with her assertion regarding his formal attire, as he promptly straightened his tuxedo coat and bow-tie in another window reflection, and then shot her a small smirking glance. Which was an expression equally reciprocated, as Laura returned an almost mischievous smile in his direction.

It was something else that Logan also wished he could see more of from her, since it was such a rarity to see Laura smile or be happy about anything. Especially, since she had hardly been given much of an opportunity or reason to do so in her short life.

**xxx**

As Logan and Laura went over any last minute details before preparing to head out and put their game-plan into action, Logan's thoughts also drifted back to the circumstances that had recently led to setting this current chain of events into motion.

(_Flashback, nearly twenty-four hours ago..._)

After disembarking from the S.P.M. Sovereign Lady, Logan made his way from the shipping docks into this section of Madripoor referred to as Lowtown. Despite being the half of the city Where poverty and heavy criminal influences had managed to deeply entrench itself, Logan nonetheless welcomed and allowed the aura of his surroundings to permeate through him. From the scent of ripened produce on the curbside food carts, to the aroma of various cuisines wafting out of the stalls of nearby hawkers that ranged widely from _rendang_, to _sushi_ and _sashimi_ and other delicacies that hit his enhanced senses like a brick wall, he was instantly taken back to days long since passed. Walking down these once familiar streets, now lined with the down-trodden faces of other passersby's who were equally as unfamiliar to him, Logan continued on until he spotted a place that within his personal frame of reference fell into that first category of being very much recognizable to him.

The Princess Bar.

Having managed to survive through world wars and other earth-shattering events, both natural and man-made, the establishment currently known as the Princess Bar had carried on in one form or another as something of an institution here in Lowtown. For Logan, it was a place that held a lot of memories for him, both good and bad. Which in his case, was something that didn't come at a premium for him in either instance.

Upon Logan's entering of this domain, whose interior-design radiated an air of elegance harkening back to a bygone era that one would only expect to find now in the realm of classic cinema, its patronage all seemed to simultaneously turn away from their various activities within to briefly glimpse at this stranger wearing a faded gray windbreaker, bucket hat, and blue jeans, before going back about their rambunctious business. All the while keeping a peripheral view out of the corner of their eye on this unfamiliar face to them, in the event that he was there to start some kind of trouble.

Remaining fairly oblivious to these casual stares upon his entry, or rather pretty much ignoring them, Logan without hesitation made his way over to the bar and promptly ordered a double-shot of their strongest Canadian whiskey.

"Is Rose in?" Logan asked the bartender once he returned with his order, who was wearing a white dress-shirt, bow-tie, and red tuxedo-vest with black formal pants, all part of the decidedly upscale reputation that the Princess Bar had strove and was known for. Which, was something nowhere to be found elsewhere in the other ramshackle buildings that surrounded it.

But with regards to Logan's second request as to the whereabouts of 'Rose', the bartender simply shot Logan an unsure look. Almost, as if he wanted to answer this stranger's question with a question of his own, and find out who this guy thought he was to come in here off of the streets asking about Rose like this? However, before things could escalate into a heated confrontation, a voice interceded and interjected itself at precisely the right moment, coming from a table over in one of the bar's shadowed corners.

"Who are you? And why would you be looking for Rose?" This very feminine voice now asked Logan through a peculiarly distinct French-accent, borne of a dialect combination that he hadn't heard in a good many years.

"Name's Logan. Rose 'n me are old friends and go back, WAY back. Since before she took over runnin' this dump." Logan replied, his heightened vision now focusing in on the shadowy female-form speaking to him from the other side of the bar, "I was hopin' to dig up a little info from her on a woman around here, goes by the name of Viper."

"That…is very interesting." She replied, with a slight smile.

Deciding to fully satisfy his curiosity, Logan then took the bottle that had been so graciously left on the bar's counter with him over to this woman's table, along with a requisite pair of glasses. All, so that he could share a drink with this intriguing mystery woman dressed in a vintage royal blue and white _qipao_ dress.

"So tell me, who might you be?" Logan spun the conversation around and asked, as he sat down and poured a drink into each of the empty glasses sitting on the table in between them, all while the bar's resident piano player began keying a new soft and melodic tune.

"From what you have said, it appears that we may be friends as well. Rose isn't here at the moment, but perhaps I could be of assistance?" She replied, "Why would you be in need of information about this woman Viper?"

"Let's just say we've got some...unfinished business that I was lookin' to tie up with her." Logan answered, before gulping down the entire contents of his shotglass, "And I was hopin' to find out where I might be able to find her."

"I assume, then, that you are planning to attend the _Penumbra_, the fighting tournament that is being held here?" This mystery woman inquired, although it came across as more of a suggestion, while taking the bottle to pour another drink for Logan, "Viper, as well as all of the other local and regional crime-lords, will be there in attendance."

She then went on to further explain how the political, social, and economic spheres in Madripoor were so delicately and intricately linked with one another, that rivalries and alliances could shift almost literally at the drop of a hat depending on whatever the issue of contention at the moment happened to be.

She then went into painstaking detail on how the country's two top crime-bosses, a retired and highly decorated military officer named General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, and his chief rival the business mastermind known only as Roche, both unofficially controlled Madripoor. With Roche having laid claim to Hightown and its wealth of financial resources and other capital, while Coy had carved out and consolidated a powerbase of his own from Lowtown's plethora of illegal and illicit operations, and how each had a chain of criminal underbosses beneath them. With Viper having recently inserted herself into that pecking-order rather seamlessly.

All of this, in spite of the fact that Madripoor had an internationally-recognized Head of State, its grand monarch and absolute ruler Prince Baran. Who, generally presented himself to the world-stage behind the image of an autocratic leader that oversaw and ran the affairs of his homeland with a cold iron fist, while the truth of the matter was far less clear-cut.

That, because of Roche's skilled expertise in exploiting the laws and its accompanying loop-holes within every foreign economic market on the planet for his own criminal ventures, and Coy's extensive military background, ties to the global black-market, and other dirty-dealings that had perhaps gained him a greater degree of influence over Madripoor's police and military forces than even its own commander-in-chief could claim, Prince Baran had come to rely heavily on these two men mainly as a matter of practicality. Both, because of the financial sustention and overall stability in general that each was able to foster within his regime, and because of the way that Roche and Coy acted as a power check on one another, so that neither would turn an overly ambitious eye to the throne on which he currently sat.

Knowing how tenuous a situation existed here within his kingdom, it was one reason that Prince Baran continued to uphold Madripoor's age-old tradition of refusing to extradite anyone to foreign powers, regardless of the crimes that they were accused to have committed. And, was why uninvited outside interference into any of its internal matters was resoundingly discouraged by all of Madripoor's officials.

The reason for such a lengthy dissertation on Madripoor's socio-political structure being given to Logan was to clearly illustrate to him the importance of being cautious in his desire to seek out Viper and finish whatever 'business' that he had with her. That, even though Viper had managed to make numerous enemies during her fairly short time here in Madripoor, that even they could conceivably come to her defense if they felt that the balance of power, and their mutual prosperity, was being threatened by some outside entity.

"So, all of that was to basically say that the bad guys usually stick together around here when push comes to shove." Logan sarcastically commented, as he downed what was by now his fifth drink in about as many minutes while listening to her explanation.

"A rather simplistic way of stating it, but I suppose that would be a correct summarization." She replied, having yet to touch the first drink that had been offered to her.

"Well, I appreciate the lowdown and the warnin'." Logan said, as he stood up and reached into his front-pocket, "For your troubles."

Knowing from his own personal experience how the exchange of good information in potentially hostile territory could more often than not be as valuable as gold, and that in a place like Lowtown currency of any kind could literally mean the difference between life and death, Logan wanted to show a sign of his gratitude to this woman for her taking such a risk by so openly talking to him.

But, when Logan went to retrieve a few bills from his billfold to offer to her, he was caught a bit by surprise at her response.

"That is not necessary, _M'sieur_." She replied, taking the money that Logan had tried to give to her and placed it back into his palm, closing his rough and weathered hand back around it with her own relatively delicate fingers.

"Then why're you bein' so generous with the info?" Logan asked, now feeling confused about what this woman's true motivations were.

"Let's just say that I could sense from the moment when you first came in here that you were on a righteous quest. And I believe that it is my responsibility to aid you in fulfilling your part towards what will be a greater good. Some might refer to such a simple notion as--" She was saying, but received a little help from her new acquaintance in finishing her sentence.

"Karma. Yeah, I get it." Logan added with a smirk, as he took in the features of this young, early 20's-ish woman seated there for one last time, and then turned to make his departure from the Princess Bar. So, that he could make it over to his rendezvous with Laura at the luxurious Sovereign Hotel...

**xxx**

(_Back in the present..._)

"So'd you forget to bring your eyepatch with you?" Was the blunt question now posed by Laura, as she and Logan stood side-by-side on an elevator that was currently transporting them down to the Sovereign Hotel's first-floor lobby.

"Gonna beat that horse to death, are we?" Logan glibly asked in response, as his gaze remained fixed on the elevator's closed doors in front of them.

"No. Just wondering if you might be worried about us standing out in a crowd?" Laura used his own words to remind him.

"A wealthy western businessman here with an underage-girl? Trust me, ain't nobody around here gonna think anything's outta the ordinary!" Logan looked over and told Laura, referencing their cover identities just as the elevator doors opened up before them to signal their arrival.

Briskly making their way through the lobby to the hotel's outside, Logan and Laura next headed in the direction where the _Penumbra_ tournament was being held only a few blocks away.

As they did, Laura's mind went over their plan for this evening with the two of them posing as foreign spectators at tonight's martial-arts tournament, while waiting for the right time to strike and take down Viper without having to fight their way through half of Madripoor to do so. Logan had kept mentioning something to her about wanting them to avoid winding up like Butch and Sundance here, although Laura had no earthly idea what he was talking about. In her mind, it would be well worth it to have to kick a little ass in order to get her hands on Viper.

On the woman responsible for so much of the suffering that she'd endured in her life, unspeakable things done to her that she still continued to grapple with to this day and relived on a constant basis in her nightmares.

On the woman who excelled at, and seemed to revel in, breaking any semblance of self-esteem that she might have developed, and so psychologically damaged Laura that she for years believed with all of her heart Viper's assertion that she truly wasn't a real person. Which, was thanks to the constant reminders from Viper that she was nothing but an overly-expensive carbon copy of the original Weapon X, that she was something far less than human or mutant and was to be treated accordingly.

On the woman who stripped any shred of dignity from her by turning her into a walking science experiment, by turning her body into a 'thing' that didn't belong to her and was instead the sole domain of HYDRA's scientists to use to satisfy whatever curiosities that they may have had about human genetic-mutation. Regardless of whether it pertained to Laura specifically, or just their overall fascination for the field in general.

Such as, what would happen if one of the bone claws (which had recently begun taking full-form as a result of Laura reaching the early stages of adolescence) were to be removed from each of her arms and placed into her corresponding feet, would her body with its newly-emerged healing capabilities learn to adapt? So intrigued by this proposition was Viper, that she ordered them to immediately find out.

To this day Laura can vividly remember the horrific sensations of having one of her claws and its surrounding bone housing ripped out of each arm, of having her arms surgically cut open and repeatedly re-opened because of her persistent healing-factor attempting to repair the damage and close the wound. The indescribable pain of having parts of her skeletal structure violently sawed through without the luxury of any kind of anesthetic being administered, per the explicit orders of the then-Madam Hydra herself.

In her nightmares, the sickening echoes from howls of agony reverberating off of the examination room's cold steel-walls is one of the things that still often wakes Laura at night, on those rare occasions where she's actually able to fall asleep. A dream-time scenario that's second in her mind, both in terms of frequency and the sheer terror that it generated from within her, only to waking up soon after her 'surgery' to find herself sealed inside of a huge glass float-tank with molten-hot metal being slowly and excruciatingly infused into her body, feeling as though she were being burned head to toe from the inside out.

The lone constant being in all of Laura's nightmares, regardless of whatever their disturbing circumstances may include, was the almost smiling visage of the woman responsible for doing this to her. As if Viper had taken some form of perverse pleasure in administering these countless acts of such extreme cruelty upon her.

With all of these things from her past still weighing so indelibly on her, Laura wondered how she was going to react to seeing Viper again? Whether she would stick to the plan, or simply lose all control and give into that blinding berserker rage that she had worked so hard at controlling since coming to live at the Xavier Institute, reverting her back to that efficient and uncaring killer that HYDRA had programmed her to be?

At any rate, Laura was about to learn the answer to that particular question, now that she and Logan had arrived at the site where the _Penumbra_ was being held, which was also the home of the crimelord named Roche. An avid enthusiast of this type of bloodsport, Roche had gone so far as to commission the construction of an extravagant indoor arena that he had built into his own home and that was capable of seating several hundred when hosting these martial arts exhibitions.

It was an opulent compound located in the exclusive Monied Heights palisades that sat high above overlooking all of Lowtown below, Roche's private stronghold was in essence a chateau-like design whose lavishness was second only to the Prince's own palatial residence. Which, quickly became quite apparent to Logan and Laura as they took in this birds-eye view granted to them from the steep cliffside that encompassed part of Roche's estate, looking out across the harbor at the veritable fleet of junk sail-boats slowly bobbing along with the gentle waves of the sea's current. All the while, they stood outside of its huge front gates and patiently waited as one of Roche's guards finished with his scrutiny of the forged invitations that they were attempting to use to gain entry to the tournament.

Once they were finally admitted inside, Logan and Laura got an even more up close and personal introduction to this grand hall of combat. Keeping their eyes peeled as they were guided through the luxurious corridors of this extravagant domicile that were all lined with numerous paintings, busts, and other accessorial pieces meant to compliment its mix of French and Chinese-influenced design, which in and of itself seemed to be a reflection of its owner. Logan and Laura were then shown to their seats in this interior private arena by one of Roche's people.

Where they were immediately treated to a match that was just about to start down on the slightly-elevated exhibition platform before them.

On one side was a man dressed in a common pair of steel-blue wrestling tights with matching boots and a matching _luchadore_ mask, who more unconventionally had a pair of long, razor-like blades mounted onto the ends of each one his fists. He had entered himself in this no-holds barred combat tournament, appropriately enough, under the name of Razorfist. Across the ring from him though was his opponent, whose name had been introduced before Logan and Laura had taken their seats and whose appearance was far more modest, consisting mainly of a simple white gi with the sleeves ripped off of it. And, who appeared to be standing there studying the larger and more lethally-appendaged man across from him with a scrutiny that went several levels beyond intense.

Once the signal had been given from the judges for the match to begin, the spectators watched on as Razorfist rushed over at his opponent with a flurry of slashing attacks. Which, was meant to intimidate and to inflict a tremendous amount of damage in a short amount of time, and bring this contest to a swift conclusion. But, his opponent seemed undaunted and agilely dodged each of these deadly swipes coming at him from every direction, all the while carefully biding his time in anticipation of his own counter-attack.

Which came, along with the match's end, at such an unbelievably blinding speed that those in attendance who had made the unfortunate mistake of blinking at that precise moment missed it all. With an uppercut blow delivered squarely into Razorfist's central sternum, the next and last thing that this self-proclaimed master of death saw from his double-overed vantage point was a fierce flash of light going off right in front of his face.

What the audience saw next was Razorfist flying through the air, back across all of the way to the other side of the ring after being hit by an energy discharge of some kind. Which led to immediate speculation amongst those who had just witnessed this feat about whether or not the obvious winner of this bout was himself a mutant? But, the two individuals who would've probably been the most qualified in this crowd to make an educated guess as to the nature of the victor's extraordinary abilities were at the moment otherwise occupied.

Principally, because Logan and Laura had just caught a glimpse of Viper as she made her entrance in one of the balcony booths above them, having arrived in the arena right before the spectacular display that had just taken place in the ring down below.

As Razorfist was carried off after his hard landing onto the concrete floor outside of the ring, the next two competitors were introduced and then proceeded to make their way towards the ring. Not that Laura would've noticed or even cared about it, since her gaze remained fixated up on one balcony box in particular where Viper was calmly sitting with her companion and body-guard Keniuchio Harada.

While Harada was wearing a tuxedo much like his counterpart seated beside Laura, Viper had opted for something a bit less conservative in the form of a slinky metallic-green dress, which had a low v-cut opening down the front and left little to the imagination. Upon noticing that she had caught the undivided attention of a curious onlooker from down-below, Viper adhered to the spirit of propriety and responded by flashing a toothy, slightly-fanged grin back in Laura's direction.

Which had the effect, albeit one that was both desired and intended by the sender, of driving the younger girl up the wall.

_"How dare she!"_

Laura fumingly thought to herself, as she used every ounce of self-restraint that she possessed to contain her seething anger for this woman, and to keep from tearing a pathway right through the dozens of other spectators that were sitting between Viper and herself.

"Just play it cool and stick to our plan. You'll get your chance when the time is right." Logan now said as he looked over and placed a hand up on one of Laura's shoulders, having sensed a tensing through her body language that indicated the level of rage within this young lady seated beside him was rising exponentially.

"**I know!** You're not dealing with some rookie here, you know?" Laura replied to Logan with an indignant huff, as she turned back around in her seat to face forward towards the ring and threw her arms across her body in a folded fashion, all the while managing to keep a trained eye locked on Viper thanks to her own exceptional peripheral vision.

Laura's point to Logan was one that the older man took to heart, having acknowledged to himself immediately his mistake in attempting to chide her. That, while he knew logically that Laura was more than up to the task of handling herself on a caper like this with the utmost professionalism, Logan still found himself looking at her as he would any of the other kids from the Institute and fell back into his habitual role as mission guidance instructor.

Which surprisingly, Laura knew and was very much able to understand why he acted that way. A part of her even liked and appreciated the idea of being looked at as 'just another one of the kids', especially since she had been so concerned when first coming to live at the Institute that she would never fit in or be accepted as one of them. But, another part of her took tremendous pride in her ability to carry her own weight in these kinds of situations, and in the notion that Logan had a partner in her who was fully capable of backing him up when worse came to worst.

In the meantime, while Viper and Laura had been busy exchanging glances between one another that ranged from artificially cordial to downright hostile (to say the least), another match had begun and was currently taking place down in the ring at that very moment. This contest had two fairly evenly-matched competitors facing off with one another, pitting a seasoned sumo wrestler against a former judo world champion. And while one would assume that it would be the latter of these two using his expert skills in grappling and throwing to toss his opponent around to his advantage, it wound up being the sumo who utilized his own considerable weight and corresponding leverage to send the other man sailing far out into the sea of spectators that surrounded the ring. Far enough out in fact, that the ex-judo champ ended up making an abrupt landing in the row right in front of where Logan and Laura were seated.

Which, was spectacular enough in and of itself. But, when the commotion that was caused by their fellow attendees having to dive out of the way of this incoming human missile escalated into a more general state of pandemonium in their seating section, alarms went off immediately with Logan and Laura thinking that something about all of this wasn't right. Like the kind of feeling one gets when they realize that what seems to be a mere coincidence, is actually just the first step in triggering a more elaborate orchestration now being carried out.

Such as, a career criminal-extraordinaire using her growing local influence to manipulate a fight and it's ultimate outcome.

These gut suspicions were quickly confirmed for Logan and Laura when they looked up towards the balcony area to see that Viper and Harada were making a hasty retreat, amidst all of the confusion, shoving, and small scuffles that had broken out down below them. But remaining calm and collected about all of this, as they shot each other a look of mutual understanding about what their next move would be, Logan and Laura got up and expeditiously made their way through this crowd of panicked spectators with high efficiency, heading over towards one of the small arena's exits.

Once they were finally out in an empty and adjoining corridor, they then made use of their acute mutant senses to begin tracking where their quarry had gotten off to? But after following said trail down to a sub-level parking garage, the two individuals that they were seeking out were nowhere to be found. Although, they did unexpectedly wind up running into another familiar face, at least one who was now very much known to Logan.

"Long time, no see, Karma." Logan semi-humorously remarked, as the young woman whom he had met at The Princess Bar little more than twenty-four hours ago, was now once again standing across from him in a shadowy area of this underground parking garage.

"Karma?" This young woman replied with a raised eyebrow to the informal cognomen Logan had used to refer to her by.

"Seein' as you never told me your name last time we met, it was either that or 'shadow-girl'. And, that second one's pretty much already been taken." Logan said with a noticeable smirk, alluding to the fact that she seemed to continually keep appearing to him from darkened corners.

"Well, I must say, you look none the worse for wear yourself, _M'sieur_!" Karma now happily replied to Logan, having taken notice of the 180 degree change in his attire tonight from the modest windbreaker and jeans that she had seen him in last night, to this evening's formal tuxedo suit.

Karma then took notice of another change with this man with whom she had recently become acquainted.

"I see that you have brought a guest along with you this time as well?" Karma said as she looked over at Laura, who was standing right beside Logan.

"Yeah, she--" Logan said as he was about to start into his explanation of their cover-story, when he was suddenly interrupted.

"--doesn't have time for this! **They're getting away**!" Laura, who was feeling less than sociable at the moment, looked over at this woman and then back up at Logan and vocally pointed out for the both of them.

"I sensed that something was afoul before the last match began. And, I saw Viper and the Silver Samurai get into an awaiting car to depart just as I arrived down here." Karma replied, while reaching into her purse and fishing around for something seemingly of importance.

And, having apparently found what she was searching for in rather short-order, she once again spoke to Logan and Laura.

"I believe that you will know how to make use of these." Karma said, as she tossed a set of keys to Logan. And then with a sizable grin, she pointed over towards a custom motorcycle parked several feet away from them. One, which was of a strikingly familiar model.

"How'd you manage to..." Logan was starting to ask as he gave this Harley, which was uncannily similar in its design to the one that he had left back home in Bayville, and his benefactor both a quick visual once-over.

"Let us just say that that I have my ways." Karma smiled and said in a singular response to all of the questions that she sensed Logan had, as her eyes began to mysteriously glow a soft-incandescence.

Which was further proof that, like him, there was more to her than she had initially let on.


	3. Get it on Bang a Gong, pt II

Ride

Written by Darkstorm5000

Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.

**xxx**

Chapter 2- Get It On (Bang A Gong), pt II

A few moments later after getting directions from Karma as to the precise whereabouts of Viper's hideout, something that she had apparently managed to discover for them through the use those same mysterious 'ways' that she possessed, which was then followed by a very brief wardrobe change into their 'workclothes' that had been stashed nearby, Logan and Laura found themselves racing through the streets of Madripoor from one end of this island to the other on the back of their newly acquisitioned street-cruiser. All, in the hopes of catching up with their targets before they managed to make good on what would be a likely departure to parts unknown. But, given the alarming speed at which they were riding and this island's relatively diminutive size, they easily managed to reach their waterfront destination in a matter of only a few minutes.

Stepping off of the rear-half of the motorbike's seating where she had been seated with a firm hold around Logan from behind, Laura just stood there for a brief moment staring up at the faded and crumbling exterior of this dockside warehouse that had a giant sign at its top that read Sovereign Freight, designating it as part of Madripoor's own nationalized shipping and distribution company. Then, without a word being said, Laura removed the top jacket-half of the brown leather pants and jacket combo that she was wearing and tossed it back across the bike's seat right where she had been sitting, revealing a simple black tank-top that she had on underneath. It was an unspoken gesture on her part to signify that the need for covert actions and elaborate covers was at an end, and that the time had come for them to just hit this place hard and with everything that they had.

Which, Logan immediately recognized as it was a sentiment that he could certainly identify with. Having already dropped the bike's kickstand down, after killing the engine upon entering this dockyard and coasting the several yards up to the warehouse's front-door, Logan too got off of it and was himself very much in the mindset of carrying out the endgame to this mission. Which, was further evidenced by his having decided to change into his black and yellow-trimmed X-uniform after leaving the tournament, and by the serious scowl that he was currently wearing on his face.

With a double dose of claw-strikes, used in lieu of actual keys to carve their way through the large steel doors of the warehouse's main cargo entrance, Wolverine and X-23 kicked in the now detached centers of these huge sliding doors and let themselves inside. Which obviously didn't go unnoticed, with the alarms throughout the interior of this facility loudly going off in acknowledgement of this blatant security breach.

And just as was expected, Wolverine and X-23 were met by squads of a few dozen men each, Viper's own personal cadre she had dubbed her 'Snakemen'. All of whom were highly trained mercenaries-for-hire dressed in matching green and brown uniforms with coordinating snake-themed masks, and who were also heavily-armed and ready to defend their leader Madame Viper to the death, if need be. Which, given the nature of these two individuals who'd just let themselves in, was a prospect that had a very realistic possibility of being put to that ultimate test of loyalty.

But luckily for them, Wolverine and X-23 were after much bigger game this evening and paid them only passing attention, knowing that the most effective way to take down any animal is by removing its head and not by wasting time hacking away at its limbs. So, with Wolverine content to simply disarm and incapacitate a number of them with brutal and blunt efficiency, X-23 followed his lead and did much the same. Albeit in a more refined manner, with her own fluid, graceful and precision-timed strikes being utilized in stark contrast to Wolverine's more bulldozer-like fighting style, as they both dodged the blaster-crossfire that was now all around them.

Having succinctly cut a swath right through Viper's Snakemen, the pair then made their way over to and then up the steel staircase that these armed men had been so fervently defending. Up to where the woman now known as Viper was herself likely waiting for them. But on their way up to this appointed moment of reckoning on the warehouse's second floor, both Wolverine and X-23 paused on an intermediary mezzanine-level when their mutant hyper-senses picked up on an unusual scent. At least one unusual in the sense that they were detecting it in this place, and that it was in such an exceptionally high concentration that it would've been impossible for them to ignore. Following their senses over to a nearby locked steel-door, Wolverine and X-23 instinctively popped their claws and went to work on finding out if they were correct in their assumptions about what was behind it.

Or rather, whom was behind it.

Cutting through the lock and large securing bar on this heavy cargo door in almost no time flat, Wolverine and X-23 opened it to find that they had unfortunately been correct in their suspicions. That, huddled within this cramped holding area was a group of frightened young ladies made up from a diversified range of nationalities, with most appearing at first-glance to be in their late teens to early twenties. Although there was good reason for them to believe that more than a few in there were probably far younger than that. Particularly since there was only one likely reason that they were being held here, obviously against their will, at this temporary stopping point in their transit to any myriad of destinations around the world as part of the human trafficking and sex-slave trade epidemic that has plagued nearly every nation.

While Viper probably viewed these girls' no differently than she did the weapons, narcotics, and other illegal items that passed in and out of here on a daily basis for her clients, it was precisely because of that very realization that X-23 could stand it no longer. Especially, given her own past and how it related to what she now saw taking place here in Viper's new operation.

"**She is so dead**!!!" X-23 shouted, unable to hold back the surge of raw emotion now coursing through her as she took off up the final flight of stairs to the warehouse's second floor, exhibiting a level of anger that Wolverine hadn't seen from her in quite some time, but one that was all too familiar to him. It was the kind that individuals' like her and himself only felt when they were right on the verge of falling into a blinding berserker rage.

Rushing up those same stairs right behind her, Wolverine was able to reach the second floor just in time to see X-23 disappear as she rounded a far-off corner on the other side of this upper warehouse level. And, just as someone else had caught glimpse of him and his sudden appearance up here.

"Let her go. There are old debts between the two of us that must now be settled as well, _gaijin_."

With those words spoken, Wolverine looked up towards a small platform area located a few feet over and above him to see that this statement had come from Harada, who was now garbed in the fully-armored regalia that had earned him the title of The Silver Samurai!

"All's I see is that same, two-bit punk hood I first met all o' those years ago, and helped your sister to eventually put away!" Wolverine sarcastically replied to him.

"Your inconsequential opinion to the contrary, you will find that much has changed about me since then." The Silver Samurai stood and calmly asserted from his perched position.

"Yeah, I also see you went out and got yourself some fancy chrome-plated britches." Wolverine smirkingly bantered, referring to the fact that when they had last met Harada was going by the more abbreviated moniker of simply 'The Samurai'.

"No, much more has changed than that. Allow me to demonstrate!" The Silver Samurai proposed, as he made his offer with far more zeal this time, then drew his daikatana blade and leapt down off of this elevated area right at Wolverine.

While descending into this freefall, the Samurai's sword suddenly began to crackle and burn with pure energy, flaring to life mid-air in a most foreboding manner.

But, the only discernible reaction that it managed to elicit from its intended target was a quick _Snikt!_ and a huge smile, as Wolverine was more than eager to extend to it, and to it's owner, a most warm welcome.

**xxx**

After making her way down this corridor to a chamber-like room that sat at its end, X-23 was finally greeted by the sight of Viper in there. Who, appeared to have been quietly passing the time in this her personal quarters on a comfortably-cushioned antique _chaise longue,_ which fit in well with the overall decor of these conspicuously posh surroundings.

"I suppose that you were expecting to catch me in the midst of some sort of mad-scramble to make it to the airport, or to the next vessel departing from this island?" Viper posed to her new, yet familiar guest upon her entrance. All the while, continuing to calmly puff from a lengthy jade cigarette-holder as she relaxingly lay on this equally decadent lounger with her outstretched legs and frame positioned in a sideways manner across it.

"If you want to keep breathing, you would be!" X-23 replied in a tone that sternly relayed just how much she meant business, as she released the razor-sharp claws from their housings in her forearms out through her hands.

"But then, we wouldn't have this opportunity to chat with one another." Viper said and flashed the younger girl another serpentine smile, which served to only infuriate X-23 just that much more, "And, I believe you would agree that there are a few unresolved...matters between the two of us."

With that last pronouncement made, the entrance behind X-23 was suddenly slammed shut as a heavily reinforced door came down to sever the chamber's connection to the adjoining outer corridor, which was the sole means of leaving this now confined and heavily-reinforced space. Viper then temporarily shifted the verdant locks that usually covered one side of her face over in front of the other, revealing the hints of scarring that had been purposely left behind to serve as a reminder of her near-death experience aboard her HYDRA mothership when it blew up.

And most importantly, as a vivid visual rememberancer of the individual responsible for instigating such a catastrophic incident in the first place.

"I thought we had trained you better. Never retreat from a battle where you have a clear advantage, and never rush into a fight without having fully evaluated what intangibles a foe may be able to exploit against you. But most importantly, never leave a target behind without ensuring that they've been fully eliminated." Viper was lecturing as she stood up from her repose, now putting on for full display the skin-tight leather green outfit that she was wearing, "Especially, one who is so intimately versed in how that little one-track mind of yours works, that I could easily predict what your course of action this evening would be and prepare well in advance."

At that same moment, X-23 immediately noticed that something else was amiss in there, as all of her senses began going off like alarm-bells and she began sniffing the air all around her.

"Undoubtedly, your accursed mutant senses have by now alerted you to the toxic compound being released in here." Viper revealed, as X-23 turned an eye up to the several air vents in there. And although she couldn't see the clear gas as it seeped into the chamber, she nonetheless detected its presence.

"What, you brought me in here to watch you kill yourself?" X-23 now asked with a skeptical smirk.

"Quite the contrary. This gas is derived from a poisonous concoction to which I am wholly immune." Viper responded with her seemingly ever-present smile, a new characteristic that X-23 found to be an disturbingly far cry from this woman whom she once knew as Madame Hydra, "But you, my little pet, have just rushed in here to your death."

"How do you figure that?" X-23 once again incredulously asked of her.

"Despite what you may believe, you are far from indestructible. This gas was created with you and your impressive healing factor in mind, a complex cocktail synthesized in a concentrated level lethal enough to tax even those abilities well beyond their limits." Viper replied, as she knelt down to pick up a pair of swords, which had been manufactured from an inferior-grade vibranium alloy, off of the floor beside the lounger where she had been seated and then withdrew them from their sheaths, "But, allow me to assuage any doubts that you may have regarding the veracity of what I've said, with an up close and intimate demonstration right from its source!"

With that promulgation, X-23 was left virtually speechless by the next sight that she witnessed. As an aqueous substance of a light harlequin shade began secreting through Viper's fingertips, which had been left exposed through the cut-off ends of the gloves that she was wearing on her hands. This venomous liquid then trickled its way down unimpeded, quickly coating these blades firmly in Viper's grasp down by her sides.

And without any further discussion or warning, Viper struck at X-23 using these poison-covered swords with a speed, strength, and ferocity worthy of her own new namesake. It was a furious offensive that the girl who once took orders from this woman was able to successfully stave off, but just barely. As she strategically reassessed this situation, X-23 was grudgingly forced to admit to herself that she had underestimated Viper and the lengths that she would go to in her own quest for revenge. Which included, apparently, allowing herself to be physically experimented upon and augmented to gain these bizarre new physical enhancements.

Although, when Donald Pierce had miraculously appeared at her bedside one day with an offer to make her whole once again, to heal and rebuild her body anew just as he had done for himself after she had rescued him all of those years ago, it was one she had little choice but to entertain. Given that she no longer had the vast resources of HYDRA at her disposal, and that she and her most loyal men were in hiding following her expulsion from the terrorist group for the unforgivable crime of failure, it was an agreement that she readily accepted.

Even, if her 'rebirth' did knowingly come with a hefty price.

Meanwhile, as X-23 used her adamantium claws to fend off Viper's whirling flurry of sword slashes, she was now beginning to put more weight behind the villainess' earlier claim. The more time that she spent in this enclosed chamber, the more she felt nausea, troubled breathing, and a heavy dizziness creeping up on her that were all beginning to take its toll. Which, was a foreign concept for someone who had never known what it meant to be sick with anything like the flu or simple food-poisoning.

This environment, in which the average person by now would have long since been completely overcome by the deadly effects of these airborne toxins, was proving to be every bit the difference maker in this fight that its progenitor had predicted. As evidenced by X-23's delayed reflex-time, causing a noticeable sluggishness in her usually otherwise fluid movements that seemed to now infect her entire being and would cost her dearly as Viper's poison-coated blades at last found their mark.

Delivering a deadly blow, all the while managing to stay clear of X-23's own unrelenting claws, Viper struck deep and hard by simultaneously sinking one sword into the younger girl's left kidney, and the other deeply across her left arm. The result was an atypical retreat, as X-23 was forced to take a few steps away from Viper and temporarily pull back from this fight.

"With the viper's bite inflicted, you will soon begin to feel the full effects of my venom. The burning sting that you are currently feeling will soon turn to a cold numbness, as your healing factor struggles to simply keep the tissue surrounding your wounds alive." A heavily perspiring Viper said, as she used this brief pause as an opportunity to catch her breath and boast a little while licking her wounds, as it were, from the various minor to moderate lacerations that X-23's claws had managed to wreak all over her body during their savage altercation, "In case you were curious."

But, X-23 was already well aware of the venom's effect, as she felt her arm indeed starting to go numb. And it only added to her resolve to want to end this all the more quickly.

"And to think that I once had such high hopes for you, especially when one considers the tremendous amount of time and money wasted on you. Now you're just a failed, broken weapon. A nothing. Less than nothing, not even a real person." Viper was in the middle of spouting her latest conjecture, when she was vehemently disagreed with.

"**SHUT UP**! **I am too a real person**!" X-23 spat back in her own defense, doing so with an intensity of conviction that showed for her it was a belief that she clung to with every fiber of her own self-validation as a human being, while she continued standing there clutching around her injured left arm and left side with her right arm.

"Really, is that what you've actually managed to convince yourself? Clone." Viper now inquired with a skeptical grin and raised eyebrow of her own, accompanied by a laugh that was as much humoring as it was humorless.

And it was more than X-23 could bear any longer.

To have to hear these things from this woman, this same woman who had used these same self-doubts to manipulate X-23 into believing that her only value to anyone was in her use as a cold instrument of death, as a killer, now had the enraged teen seeing red at being forced to relive those painful memories. Through intermittently blurry vision, a combined result of the venom and its aerated equivalent's effect, and from the angry tears that she could no longer hold back, X-23 only wanted to strike back at Viper now in the worst possible way and hurt her tormentor just as she had been hurt.

"**I HATE YOU**!!" X-23 screamed, as she ran at Viper with two fistfuls of claws and a lifetime's worth of accumulated rage all aimed right at her.

Unfortunately though, acting out on pure emotion alone is usually not a wise strategy in combat, as it often breeds carelessness and almost always leads to clumsy, costly mistakes. A realization not lost on Viper, since she had been counting on this very prospect when she initiated this last exchange between the two of them, and would be only too happy to capitalize on any missteps on her opponent's part.

As her own cybernetically-enhanced neurosystem allowed her to anticipate and avoid X-23's claws as they flailed about her with definite purpose, to such a degree that they seemed to be coming at her from every direction, Viper was once again able to bide her time until the proper opportunity presented itself for her...

To Strike!

After drawing a precise angle and trajectory on her quarry, one of Viper's poison-drenched swords once again found its mark.

"**Aiieee**!"

Was the next sound heard as Viper rammed one of her virulent blades into X-23's abdomen, managing to thrust the sharp weapon upward deep into one of her lungs. Both women were by now physically tattered and bloodied, with X-23 having received the worst of this conflict. Hitting the floor hard, she slumped over into an almost lifeless heap after Viper yanked her sword out of her fallen foe.

Holding her sabre out and above X-23 in something of a victory pose, Viper now re-positioned it again. All in anticipation of delivering a final, possibly fatal blow through X-23's heart.

"Any last words, clone, before I grant you the ignominious death that you are most deserving of?" Viper asked, as she stood triumphantly over X-23 and prepared for her _coup de grace_.

"More like a question." X-23 struggled to reply while crouched on the floor on her hands and knees, coughing up blood in between sentences thanks to her grievous wound, as she stared down at the concrete floor beneath her, "What I want to know is with all of those new Bionic Woman upgrades that you've gotten, how many limbs do you grow back when I cut one off now?"

And before that rhetorical statement had even been finished Viper, for the first time since this violent contest had begun, found herself totally caught unawares. As the girl that she had helped turn into the world's premier child assassin tightly leapt up and over in a lightning-quick bodyflip, in the process using one of her toe-claws with surgical-precision to cleanly and completely slice off Viper's sword hand. This was followed up with two more quick claw strikes against Viper's knees, one of which had already undergone cybernetic repairs because of her previous injuries that had been caused thanks to X-23.

What occurred next was a high-pitched shriek that came from Viper, one borne as much of indescribable pain as it was pure seething anger. Anger, at having fallen for such an elementary subterfuge (with X-23 having obviously feigned the degree to which her injuries had incapacitated her in this fight, in order to lull her opponent into lowering her defenses), as it was at having lost yet another thing to this girl.

In the meantime X-23 had managed to stagger back up to her feet, and now had her claws unsheathed around both sides of Viper's neck. Who, since receiving this vicious amputation from X-23 had dropped down to her knees (at least what was left of them) and found herself in a role reversal, now left prostrate before this young girl and totally at her mercy. But even left with the undeniable reality of her current situation, Viper was determined that there would be no begging this time on her part for any level of benevolence, which she herself less than rarely had ever been the grantor of.

"Well, what are you waiting for? **Go ahead and do it**! It is your sole reason for existing, after all." Viper now shouted at X-23, as she looked up and then leaned forward into the crux where X-23's claws crossed over one another at her throat, offering one final act of defiance in the face of certain death.

Although, her appointed deliverer now appeared not quite as sure regarding her role in deciding Viper's ultimate fate, as X-23 stood there with every fiber of her being screaming to just finish this with a quick double-flick of her wrists. But, there was no discernible movement at all from X-23, save for the trembling rage vellicating throughout her entire person.

As X-23 stood there and stared in enraged silence down into the chartreuse eyes of the woman responsible for so much that had gone wrong in her life, she unexpectedly began to think about the few things that had gone right since disassociating herself from HYDRA. About the fact that she had a real home now, had managed to make real friends like with her closest one being Angelica, and had found a real sense of purpose now in Bayville. The fact that she had made a new life for herself, a real life, and that she knew deep down in her heart that she never wanted to go back to being that 'thing' that Viper had just described her as, what the former Madame Hydra and her elite team of HYDRA scientists had originally tried to mold her into, the perfect killing machine.

Because for the first time in her brief life Laura actually liked herself, and this new person that she was trying to become.

While Laura was contemplating these introspective musings, however, Viper was about to turn this moment of hesitation to her advantage. Even though Laura had cut off her right hand, she hadn't actually cut off the right hand, as Viper nonchalantly fumbled with an odd-looking ring on her left hand while simultaneously resting her severed right wrist above it.

The ring itself was actually a device created by the cutting edge techno-terrorist group known internationally as A.I.M., in an attempt to develop a mobile matter transporter with unimaginable military and non-military applications. But after several years of hard work and tremendous financial resources had been poured into this project, the only progress that had been made on this front was an instantaneous teleportation device that could move at most 1-2 people at a time, which was a far cry from the mass of armies that A.I.M.'s head scientists had originally envisioned being whisked away at a moments notice to any point on the globe.

But where A.I.M. had seen a massive failure that was eventually shelved indefinitely, Viper saw something that might come in handy one day when she came across this item during a raid on one of A.I.M.'s research facilities. A day that had finally come, as Viper managed to reposition the ring around her left middle finger with a single thumb and flip its small side lever to activate it. And with a flash of light that enveloped her entire body, Laura watched helplessly as Viper quickly faded from sight right before her very eyes.

Leaving behind the hollow echo of her laughter as a final parting shot, a stinging reminder for Laura of how Viper had once again managed to escape her wrath. A realization that only further angered the already infuriated Laura to no end.

"**No**!!!" Laura screamed, as she reached out in a desperate attempt to grab Viper and prevent her from making her departure, but only pulled back empty air as Viper's molecules were dispersed to the winds and she danced away.

While Logan and Laura's official/unofficial reason for being here was as a favor to Nick Fury, to help him disrupt Viper's operations before she could rebuild her powerbase into the significant threat it had been under HYDRA, all involved knew it was really about something far more personal between these two women who had torn each other part in this chamber. And given the inconclusive manner in which it had ended, it should have been no surprise why Laura reacted next in the way that she did.

After reaching the exterior door of the chamber, which was still sealed shut, Logan quickly searched for and found a secret control panel connected to it. Once he was able to figure out how to deactivate the room's various switch-locks, including the one feeding highly toxic gas into it, the huge door opened to reveal a scene to him that looked like a small-scale warzone inside. And while Logan looked to be in pretty rough shape himself, with his X-uniform thoroughly shredded in a few small areas where a tachyon-reinforced samurai sword had found its mark, the person that he now saw before him appeared to definitely be having a far worse time of it.

"**Raahhrr**!!"

Was one of a litany of snarls and otherwise incomprehensible grunts that met Logan, as he watched Laura now going to town in here with her claws after setting herself to the task of destroying all of Viper's personal and very expensive belongings. But, what had Logan really concerned certainly went beyond just the wanton destruction of all of this private property.

It was the look that he saw in Laura's eyes.

The very same look that he saw every time he looked into a mirror, coming from that animal within staring right back at him in the reflection. And recognizing that Laura was now caught up in the throes of a full-on berserker rage, having given herself over completely to the primal fury that they constantly struggled to keep in check, Logan was now worried that she might have been finally pushed past the point of no return.

"Laura...darlin', you gotta let it go." Logan said, as he stepped into the room, knowing full-well what had caused this after the Silver Samurai had also suddenly disappeared in the middle of their fight outside.

But his remark drew absolutely no response from Laura, who continued with her own personal swath of destruction through the long chair that Viper had been sitting on. And when finished with that, she moved on to the hand-carved dresser in this _boudoir_, still without any acknowledgement to Logan's presence in there.

Seeing that his gentle approach was having no effect at all, Logan decided to talk to Laura in a language that he knew they both spoke.

"**Dammit Laura, I know you can hear me! So you better just snap the hell out of it**!!" Logan scoldingly shouted at Laura, and this time did manage to finally get her attention.

Stopping immediately halfway into working her way through Viper's spacious wardrobe closet, Laura stood there silently staring deep into the armoire for a moment before turning back around to face Logan.

"I failed. She got away. Again." Laura sighed and then told Logan in a defeated tone as tears rolled down her face, continuing from a stream that had begun before Viper's escape and that had yet to fully cease.

"So, you thought a little on the spot redecoratin' was in order here because of it?" Logan smirkingly remarked as he surveyed the debris around the two of them, trying his best to lighten and raise the spirits of this dejected young lady before him, if only just a little, but to no avail.

"No, you don't underdstand." Laura said, as her sniffling began bordering on full-blown crying, "That's twice I've failed. And I never fail. I'm not programmed to fail!"

Logan recognized immediately what was happening with Laura, who now had the look of a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown. That whenever she found herself confronted with an emotionally stressful situation that she was unable to cope with, Laura instinctively reverted back to the indoctrinated mindset that had been burned into her psychological makeup from birth by HYDRA. Which, as an outlook on her purpose in life, had never made allowances for her to entertain any concepts regarding the possibility of failure, not even to the slightest degree.

"Look, we been over all of this before. You're not programmed to do anything, not anymore. You get to make choices, just the same as everyone else." Logan said, as he attempted to talk Laura back down from the emotional precipice that she was currently standing at the edge of, "And we didn't fail anything. We did exactly what we came to do, and put Viper's operation out of business."

"But, she still got away..." Laura reminded him and once again chided herself, having by now calmed down considerably from where she was just a few brief moments ago, but still wasn't totally sold on Logan's explanation just yet.

"We'll get her. She and Harada'll both turn back up soon enough." Logan replied, while visually surveying the rest of the room, "Besides, I see you went and got yourself a souvenir to remember her by in the meantime."

Logan then pointed over across the room, to where a severed limb was still conspicuously laying on the floor. Which did, at last, bring the faintest of smiles to Laura's face.

"C'mon kid, we better get goin'." Logan now said, as he started over towards the door and gestured for Laura to join him.

"Where are we going to next?" Laura asked, as she walked alongside Logan step for step, although she was beginning to show the after-effects of her injuries in her slightly hampered strides.

With the adrenaline-rush of combat rapidly fading from her system, it was apparent that Laura was definitely starting to feel the cost of her battle with Viper. One that she would be paying for for a while, even with the recuperative assistance of her mutant healing factor.

"First, we go get the girls' downstairs and get them over to Rose's. She'll know how to get them all outta Madripoor and safely back to their homes." Logan answered, as he was instinctively about to pull out one of his cigars, but then decided it was probably best to save it for later, "Then we should probably get scarce ourselves. Every criminal and low-life thug in this country'll be gunnin' for us once word gets out about what happened here."

"That'd be fine by me. I'm not afraid of them." Laura stoically said, as the pair were nearing the staircase to the lower levels.

"Yeah, I know." Logan chuckled, partially because he knew that she was being one hundred percent honest and serious. But, mostly because he knew that he in all likelihood would've probably been sticking around here to do just that and take on all comers, if he had come here to Madripoor by himself.

But as they continued on towards the staircase, it was Logan who now found that he had a question for Laura.

"Say, you ever been to Japan?" Logan looked over and asked her, having this entire time been mulling over in his mind the fact that an old friend of his there would very interested to know exactly what her brother's been up to here.

"Are you kidding? You do know where HYDRA started, don't you?" Laura stopped and turned towards Logan, folding her arms over in front of her before responding.

Her retort, which began with what was becoming a trademark indignant huff and dripped in a tone so tinged with sarcasm, that any worries Logan may have had about how Laura was going to handle this latest disappointment in a life already overflowing in its share of them, were quickly alleviated upon her already starting to show this hint of getting back to her usual-self.

Of the girl who already made such tremendous leaps and bounds in her quest to find and reclaim her humanity.

**xxx**

Next chapter: **Wherever I roam**...


	4. Roam

Ride

Written by Darkstorm5000

Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.

**xxx**

Chapter 4- Roam

Location: _Tokyo, Japan_

Having made their way across this sprawling megalopolis into its Shinjuku district, a pair of weary travelers now neared what was their ultimate destination within this area of Tokyo. The unavoidable fatigue that had slowly begun to set in on Logan and Laura was one directly attributable to their harrowing journey here, the majority of which had been spent aboard an ocean freighter over the last couple of days. This, after having had to carefully evade Madripoorian and other maritime authorities eager to bring in the two individuals responsible for the chaos that had been left behind on that small island nation in their wake.

But, it was also due to a lingering aftereffect of the physical and psychological toll that those very same events had taken on them. Particularly for Laura, who would carry the wounds from her pivotal showdown with the former Madame Hydra with her for some time to come.

Choosing to stick to the sidewalks and side-streets even in this one of Tokyo's more liberal special wards, all in an attempt to keep from drawing any more attention to themselves than was already unavoidable in such a densely populated urban sector, Laura closely followed Logan's lead as they headed to meet up with an old friend of his. And soon they had reached an apartment complex that, while appearing a bit neglected and weathered on its exterior, still loomingly towered several stories above the other surrounding structures. Which was then shortly followed-up by a loud knocking at the front door of one of those inlying units from the narrow hallway outside.

"(Who is it?)" A female voice from within questioningly called out in Japanese.

"Just an old cowboy just passin' through, darlin'." Was the vaguely gruff response that she received. Yet, it was all that she needed to hear to cause her to come running to her door.

Appearing now before Logan and Laura was a beautiful young woman, who was currently dressed very casually in only a pink cutoff haltertop and gray biker-shorts after having been unexpectedly caught in the midst of a rare leisurely day off.

"**Oh my god, it really is you**!" Were the words squealed by one Mariko Yashida, as she opened the door and immediately jumped up to embracingly throw her arms up around the neck and shoulders of this surprise guest standing there, "And old cowboy is right, just look at you."

Having taken a brief appraisal of Logan's appearance right as she laid eyes on him, it was apparent to Mariko that their shared cowboy descriptive was one most appropriate. Especially given the leather jacket, Stetson hat, cowboy boots, and jeans that Logan had on, albeit all in a rather tattered condition.

But in that same moment something else, or more accurately someone else also caught Mariko's attention from the corner of her eye, imparting upon her that this cowboy certainly hadn't been traveling alone. A someone, who this entire time had been suspiciously eyeing Mariko and her 'warm-welcome' that she had given to Logan.

"So, who's the kid, 'Hopalong'?" Mariko took a step back and wryly asked Logan.

Which drew a very vocal response from the subject of her question, whom Mariko was now looking over towards her left at.

"**I AM NOT A KID**!" Laura let it loudly be known from where she was standing a few feet away in this confined corridor.

"Yeah, and that was you acting so mature just now." Mariko whimsically rolled her eyes and replied to this indignant vociferation.

"M'iko, this is Laura. The ki...the young lady I was tellin' you about last time we talked." Logan now said as he made a more formal introduction between the two women.

"I should've guessed, especially with that whole mild-mannered way of communicating with people she seems to have inherited." Mariko sarcastically said with an ever-present grin, as she continued to look over at an equally ever-brooding Laura.

"Don't mind her. She's just feelin' a little grumpy from the long ride over here." Logan playfully said, which drew a none-too-subtle scowl now directed at him from Laura.

Although he attempted to paint a humorous face on the morose demeanor that Laura had been displaying since leaving Madripoor, mostly in the hopes of at last pulling her out of it, Logan knew that her hostile behavior was more likely the result of Viper's having managed to escape them yet again, combined with the residual hyper-toxins still in Laura's system that her healing factor was even now hard at work trying to fully neutralize and flush out.

"Why don't the two of you come inside? You know, while I still have some neighbors not ready to call the landlord and/or cops on me for keeping up a loud commotion out here." Mariko now said with an inviting gesture, as she turned to head back into her apartment.

Walking in behind Mariko, Logan and Laura entered this small two-bedroom apartment that, while fairly roomy and spacious by Tokyo real-estate standards, was a far cry from the lavish upbringing of Mariko's youth. But, this place was one that she had grown rather accustomed to and one that Mariko was proud to now call home.

"So, what brings the two of you by anyways?" Mariko asked, as she went over into her space-conserving kitchen to return to the tea that she had been preparing for herself moments before, and now began to prep some for her guests as well.

"Just happened to be in the neighborhood after a run-in with a couple of old friends." Logan replied, once he and Laura had finished removing their boots, coats, and Logan his cowboy hat just inside of the front door.

"Looks more like you guys' happened to get into some kinda major fight with those old friends. Big shock there." Mariko sarcastically remarked, looking up at them to once again take note of her guests' worse-for-wear appearance in general, and at the state of Laura's brown jacket and pants outfit in particular, which had been ripped up pretty good in a few spots, "If you guys' want to shower up or anything, bathroom's down at the end of the hall."

Logan and Laura then looked at each other, appearing to have something akin to a conversation with one another without the need of words being exchanged. And after just a few moments of eye movements and gestures so subtle that they would be barely perceptible to most other individuals, Laura quickly turned to head down the hallway where Mariko had just pointed.

"Well, I figured you'd wanna know about our little get-together, since one of the folks we threw down with in Madripoor also happens to be your brother." Logan now said, as he came over to take a seat on the floor underneath a kotatsu table in the center of the main room that lay adjacent to the kitchen.

"I'm not surprised. After his big prison-break, I knew he'd be turning up somewhere sooner rather than later." Mariko replied, as she prepared a serving tray that had a small hotwater kettle, tea bowls, a whisk and other necessary utensils for the tea's mixing and consumption.

"Just like the wind blowin', huh darlin'?" Logan commented as he bit into the wagashi that had also been set out before him, while Mariko now prepared a bowl of tea for him.

"When it comes to my family it's pretty much business as usual, either with my brother's latest exploits of the thuggery-kind, my father and his shady business dealings, or my cousin using his criminal intellect and expertise to ensure that the family empire remains untouchable in spite of it all." Mariko told Logan, as she slowly and carefully ladled hot water into the tea bowl, then used a small bamboo whisk to thoroughly stir it in with the powdered green tea that she had just placed in there moments before, "It's no wonder that Clan Yashida has become nothing more than a symbol for the most vile forms of corruption."

At that moment, a pause purposely came into Logan and Mariko's conversation, as she passed this tea bowl that she had been readying over to him.

Taking it in with both of his hands, just as it had been handed to him, Logan then gave a small yet respectful bow to his hostess. Which in turn was immediately reciprocated to him from Mariko, as she watched her guest across from her take several precise and predetermined sips from the tea bowl. A ritual tradition that, even with its informalities here, was one that this pair very much adhered to.

Just as they had going back to the very first time that they shared this custom together.

"So, how've things been back in Bayville?" Mariko asked as she now followed a process similar to the one that Logan had just completed, doing so with her own tea bowl before sitting it back down on the table in front of her.

"Fine. Well, except for that anti-mutant, fascist-wanna-be prick who fancies himself the second-comin' of George Wallace, that is." Logan replied, as only he could, referring of course to Governor Graydon Creed, "It's only a matter of time before that bastard has those Sentinels of his right at our front door."

"I think I remember seeing something about him, now that you brought it up." Mariko replied, then took another sip of her tea, "And, I know where you're coming from. It wasn't all that long ago that the people of Japan were cheering Lady Torch. Now, there's talk even here about passing mutant regulation provisions."

But just as Mariko and Logan were in the midst of their conversation, the pair suddenly became a trio once again.

"I'm finished." Laura now announced, mainly for Mariko's benefit, as she appeared off to one side of the room wearing one of Mariko's terry-print shower robes and had a large white bath towel wrapped around her head.

What surprised Mariko though wasn't Laura's reappearance in the room. Rather, it was the fact that her teenaged guest had just taken what was probably the shortest shower Mariko had ever seen by anyone!

For Laura, growing up under the harsh militaristic training of HYDRA, showering had been nothing more than a necessity that was to be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible. It had never even occurred to her that it could be used as a form of relaxation and rejuvenation, and was one of several conventional quirks that struck her as odd when she first moved into the Institute.

However, in spite of the briefness of her cleansing experience, it had still been long enough to have something of an invigorating effect on Laura. As evidenced when she went to remove the bath sheet wrapped atop her head, which resulted in a small amount of friendly giggling from the other side of the room.

"What's so funny?" Laura gruffly asked, directing her question at the only other female in the room.

"I see that hair with a mind of its own is something else that runs in the family." Mariko happily replied, as she stood up from the table that she and Logan were seated under.

Walking over to where Laura was, Mariko came and put her hands up on Laura's shoulders and guided her over to a nearby mirror mounted up on the wall. Where Laura could see that even with her very short-lived exposure to the heated moisture back in the bathroom, it had apparently been more than enough to cause her hair to become extremely frizzy and voluminous, a by-product of her bathing that she was by now all too familiar with.

But, what Laura also saw was a still grinning Mariko standing right behind her, which caused the younger female to spin around and shoot a death-glare at this person whom she hardly knew.

"And, I see that taking things waaay too seriously is something else that got passed down." Mariko looked down and said to this noticeably angry person right in front of her, who was now beginning to growl at a faintly audible level.

While Laura thought that she was being made into the butt of some mean-spirited joke, Mariko had only intended her remark as nothing more than good-natured ribbing. Like the usual banter that regularly took place between her and Logan.

"C'mon, let me help you try and tame this wild-thing." Mariko now said, extending a sort of peace-offering to Laura in light of her unintended offense.

"Help me?" Laura replied with a raised eyebrow and a bit of suspicion to boot, particularly since it wasn't like she hadn't been dealing with this hair-care challenge on her own for her entire life.

"Sure, it's kind of like my thing." Mariko further elaborated, "I can even give you an awesome new style while I'm at it?"

Which was something that Logan could personally vouch for, having seen for himself the number of rather 'unique' hairstyles created and worn by Mariko over the years that had been borne of her own fearlessness in the realm of coiffure.

And to which, Laura at first just skeptically and silently stared up at her in response. But after looking over behind Mariko to Logan, who once again seemed to be saying something to her without actually saying anything, Laura suddenly became a bit more open to the idea.

"Okay." Laura finally broke her moment of quietude and agreeably replied, although with a bit of defensiveness still present in her tone, "But I'm telling you right now, I don't do pig-tails."

With that last statement, Mariko turned to her right and lifted her hand up to a position just underneath the single mass of short tied-back hair hanging down over there, instantly recognizing that Laura's critique was one with regard to her own twin-bunch hair styling preference.

"You only wish you could rock this 'do half as well as me!" Mariko sarcastically laughed in response.

Mariko then took Laura and guided her back towards her bedroom, which is where she kept many of her beauty items and hair care accessories.

**xxx**

More than an hour later, Mariko and Laura finally re-emerged from her bedroom to show off the end product of her hard work.

"Ta-dah! So, what do you think?" Mariko asked, as she walked back into the main room of her apartment with Laura following closely behind her.

Logan looked up and over at the pair, turning his attention away from the television that he had gone and taken up a position in front of during the interim. Standing to Mariko's left, Logan could see that Laura was now sporting her aforementioned new hairstyle, which consisted of numerous thin braids that had been plaited closely together back across her scalp.

"It looks nice." Logan replied, before turning back to the television program that he had been watching.

Which was his knee-jerk response to most inquiries of a fashion or appearance-related nature, coming from a man who for the most part felt little need to engage in extensive elaboration of his opinion when it came to these subjects.

And, from one who had learned from personal experience that it was often smarter not to.

Meanwhile, the one person whose opinion on her new look ultimately mattered most now walked back over to the mirror again to take another look at it. Carefully assessing this hairdo that Mariko had told her would help make her locks a bit more manageable, Laura found that she wasn't dissatisfied with the final result of Mariko's efforts, certainly not as much as she had been expecting.

"Well, we're going to head out to show off this latest Mariko Yashida creation. And, to do a little shopping while we're at it." Mariko now happily announced, having in the time since she disappeared with Laura changed into a more presentable outfit consisting of a pink/white long sweater, a white just-above-the-knee length skirt, and a fashionable pair of oversized strap-buckle boots.

And in that same time Laura had also changed into something more appropriate for going out in public as well, having traded the borrowed robe she had on earlier for a red t-shirt, a violet denim jacket, and a matching pair of violet jeans that were a bit too long and had to be rolled up down at the cuff. All of which were also on loan to her from Mariko, since she and Logan had to ditch most of their belongings during their escape from Madripoor.

But her footwear for this afternoon foray would remain her own, as Laura went over to strap back on the worn and slightly tattered black roundtoe biker-boots that she had on prior. Which, had been specifically designed for her to accommodate for the release of the single toe-claws housed in each of her feet.

"You know, you're more than welcome to come along too?" Mariko remarked to Logan, noting the lack of any discernible movement on his part to indicate that he was getting ready to join them.

"Thanks, but I think I'll just hang back here. I've known you long enough to know better than to get anywhere near between you and a sale when it's goin' on." Logan loudly quipped from the small sofa where he was currently situated.

"Cute." Mariko replied with a sarcastic smirk that was aimed right back at Logan and at his comment.

Mariko then turned towards the other person who would be her lone companion for this afternoon, as she and Laura went to the front door to go take their leave.

**xxx**

Next chapter: **Come out and play**…


	5. Come Out and Play

Ride

Written by Darkstorm5000

Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.

**xxx**

Chapter 5- Come out and play 

Location: _Tokyo, Japan- Shinjuku District_

One fairly short, and totally silent elevator ride later, Laura and Mariko found themselves back downstairs and out in front of Mariko's apartment building.

"So, I was thinking about us hitting the Subnade first, and then heading over to the Promenade--" Mariko was just about to say with regard to their loose itinerary for this afternoon, as they stood by the curb of this bustling city street. But before she could finish her sentence, Laura had turned and started off in the direction where this district's largest shopping malls lay.

"Ohh-kay." Mariko remarked, as she turned and went to try to catch up with her out-of-town guest, who apparently seemed to know where she was going.

Once she had rejoined her, Mariko and Laura continued on and made their way through a veritable sea of other pedestrians surrounding them on this light and dark-gray tiled walkway. A crowding environment, which was only to be expected in a place as population dense as this urban epicenter.

Upon finally reaching the Subnade a short time later, Mariko and Laura paused just inside of one of the main entrances to this sprawling underground labyrinth of shops and department stores. Having learned her lesson from her near 40 meter sprint from just a few minutes ago, Mariko eschewed asking Laura about what their first retail destination should be. Instead, after making their way down several flights of stairs into Tokyo's sub-street levels, Mariko led them towards where they would find the most important of necessities within one of Tokyo's largest and trendiest department stores.

Starting at its cosmetics counter.

Partially so that Mariko could see what the latest products out were, but also to give Laura an opportunity to find replacements for her own makeup accessories. Most of which she had been forced to ditch, along with the majority of her other personal belongings, during her and Logan's great escape from Madripoor.

As she stood there and browsed through the plethora of facial care items and other beauty accentuators available for her to choose from, Mariko debated to herself as to which combination of these varying products and shades she would use to help create the next brand-new look for herself? Meanwhile, Laura's selections turned out to be far more expeditious in their simplicity and speed.

"Found what you need already?" Mariko asked, once again somewhat astonished at the quickness with which Laura had accomplished the task at hand.

"Yes." Laura plainly replied, as she brought the items that she had picked out over with her to where Mariko was standing.

Taking a look at the sparse assortment that was currently in Laura's possession, Mariko couldn't help but comment on their overall ensemblic effect.

"So, you're really into that whole 'death becomes me' look, huh?" Mariko smilingly quipped in reference to the light-ivory foundation, black eye-shadow, black nail-polish, and black lip gloss that Laura was holding.

"It's worked for me so far." Laura unapologetically replied, before going over to pay for these dark-hued accoutrements that she had picked out.

While Laura went and stood in line behind another customer who was already at the register, Mariko quickly browsed for the particular beauty accessories that she had come in search of for herself. Which also consisted of a combination of eye-liner, lipstick, and rouge, but all of decidedly blushier shades than her companion's choices.

Immediately after having made their cosmetic purchases, Laura headed over to the clothing department with Mariko once again in tow closely behind her. Making their way through a still ever-present crowd of other shoppers, where at times they had to almost push their way past, this unfazed pair were soon browsing the wide assortment of fashion styles available in here. But this time Laura managed to finally slow down a bit, so that she could take a more thorough look at what the store had to offer.

Although, it would seem that one thing caught Laura's eye rather quickly, as evidenced by a slight grin that suddenly came to her face. Quickly snatching something off of a sales rack in front of her and then hurrying around to grab a few more items from other nearby clothing racks and shelves, Laura then zipped past Mariko with all of these things held closely in hand.

"Gonna go try this on." Laura rapidly said as she rushed on into the department store's dressing room area.

In the meanwhile Mariko passed the time debating between an apricot blouse that she had spotted, which had sleeves on it that were rolled back up to a button enclosure to keep them in place and that came with an accessorizing mesh-metal belt, and a cute little rose floral-print chiffon blouse that came to a v-taper down at its hem. She was trying hard to decide which of these two she would be taking home with her, or whether they both might end up being the lucky one?

But after several minutes of careful deliberation, which was followed by several more of her sifting through other nearby clothing racks while she tried to come to a final decision about the two blouses draped over her right arm, Mariko noticed that Laura still hadn't returned from the dressing room. So, she walked back over there with both blouses in hand to find out what was going on?

"Everything alright in there, 'Speedy'?" Mariko curiously asked, with her new nickname for Laura being a frank reference to the speed at which this young lady seemed to accomplish most tasks, regardless of how mundane. At least, up until now.

"I'm fine." Laura replied from within one of the changing booths, as she now wondered to herself why Mariko had just called her by the same appellation that Logan also on occasion used for her?

Although it was by sheer coincidence, since Logan's reason for referring to her by this nickname really had more to do with Laura's habit of occasionally hotwiring his bikes back home, and how she proceeded to then handle said motorcycles.

A short while later, just as Mariko had wandered into the shoe department where a cute little pair of white pumps with glossy black patent closed-toes had caught her eye, she heard Laura speaking out to her from back over in front of the dressing rooms.

"I'm going to buy this." Laura now said, as she stood there wearing her new ensemble. Which, she was fully expecting to hear Mariko make some sarcastic remark about, just like many of the people whom she knew probably would have, but couldn't have been further from the truth.

"Not bad." Mariko replied, thinking to herself that she could just as easily start calling Laura 'Surprise', since that was what the younger girl seemed to also excel at continually doing to her.

Coming over to get a closer look at the outfit that Laura had just spent a significant amount of time putting on, it turned out to definitely be one of the last things that Mariko was expecting to see her wearing. One, which consisted of a black corset adorned with thin gold-cording attached across its front, a red 1/4 length short-waist jacket worn over it that clasped up around the collar that only served to further show-off Laura's already exposed abdominal area, and a matching black miniskirt with similar gold tasseling hanging off around its bottom hemline. And while she had also thrown in a pair of fishnet stockings to go with her new look, true to form, Laura still had her original black combat boots on.

"I'm almost tempted to take you down to the Harajuku, just so I can show you off!" Mariko now added, as she walked around Laura and inspected her new attire, noticing that Laura had applied some of the umbral-hued makeup that she had selected a short time ago during her extensive stay in the dressing room, and that she had just added a small black top-hat to finish off this distinctive look.

Given that she completely respected and could relate to the occasional need to just cut loose and have a little fun, to totally reinvent and express oneself by taking uninhibited fashion risks and making a liberating statement about yourself through them, Mariko's last assertion was meant very much as a compliment. And, it was a point that she further backed up when a short time later Mariko graciously went and paid for Laura's new outfit, along with a few other 'dress up' items that she and her guest wound up picking out for themselves.

Leaving out of this store with a couple of bags for the each of them, and with Laura still wearing the first outfit that she had picked out, Mariko looked over and made yet another observation about her companion as they walked on together past several other smaller shops out in this underground mall. That, Laura currently looked to be the genuinely happiest that she had seen since her arrival earlier that afternoon.

Then, all of a sudden, Laura came to a complete stop in front of one of these shops.

Looking up at the sign above it, Mariko saw that it was a specialty-electronics store.

"I'm going in here to see if they can repair pod-players?" Laura informed Mariko as she pulled a pod-player, or what was left of it, from the pocket of the clothes that she had borrowed from Mariko earlier, which were now sitting down in one of her shopping bags.

"As much as they're going to charge you to fix it, you could probably just buy a new and better one for less." Mariko advisingly told Laura while looking down at the shattered device in her hand.

"**I don't want a new one**!" Laura semi-shouted in a protestive response, as her demeanor quickly changed from joyful to much less so.

"Fine! No need to go and get all growly with me about it." Mariko replied in kind, now showing signs of starting to get a little tired of Laura's wild mood swings.

But at the same time Mariko also had to remind herself that there were reasons for Laura's sometimes erratic behavior, and that these sudden angry outbursts were a result of the raw abuse that Laura had suffered and was still trying to cope with. Which, Logan had gone into heartbreaking detail to tell her about during his visit prior to this one.

Walking into the small store, Laura went past the various shelves stocked with an assortment of hi-tech gadgetry and right up to the main counter towards the back. Where the shop's sales clerk, a man who appeared to be in his mid to late forties, was seated on a bar-type stool behind it.

"(Can I help you?)" The clerk asked in his native language, as Laura continued her approach towards him.

"(Do you repair pod-players?)" Laura responded, speaking to the clerk in flawless Japanese. It was one of several languages that she was highly fluent in, and was a reason that the faculty of Bayville High's foreign languages department loved her.

Taking the damaged device and handing it to him up across this counter between them, the clerk held it up in his palm and closely examined its broken components, turning it over and over several times. Then, he looked back up at Laura, whose face and line of sight just barely cleared this counter's top.

"(What happened to it?)" He curiously asked her, while continuing to slowly turn the shattered device over in his hand.

Right at that moment, Laura had to think up a quick explanation for how her pod-player came to be in its current state. Particularly since she wasn't able to reveal the truth, that it had been crushed during the several fights that she and Logan were involved in after defeating and ousting Viper from her position as principal distributor of illegal cargo into and out of Madripoor. An action, which had wound up earning the pair a hefty bounty that was placed on both of their heads by those whose own operations on the island had been severely hampered as a result.

But just as she wasn't able to explain the full details of what had happened to her pod-player, nor could she find a way to properly verbalize, to truly express why she hadn't just ditched it with the rest of her gear back on the island?

One of the reasons probably had to do with the fact that this device was one of the first things that Laura had received after coming to live at the Institute. Having initially seen her roommate with one, Laura's curiosity about the device quickly got the better of her and her roommate allowed her to borrow it so that she could see for herself what the big deal about it was?

Enthralled by the level of private freedom, the pure enjoyment, and this healthier form of release that she received in just those few brief moments was more than enough to convince Laura. So much so, that her roommate saw the immediate effect that it had on her and decided to let her keep it.

On top of that, the high sentimental value that she in the time since had wound up attaching to this particular pod-player was also something of a significant development for Laura. Mainly, because she had grown up without any concept of having personal possessions and had been taught that everything was ultimately expendable, herself included. Which made this new emotional capability, this newfound need to place a sense of worth on both inanimate and animate objects (herself included), a self-awareness that she was still trying to wrap her head around.

"(It was accidentally broken...during a party.)" Laura tersely replied to the inquiry into how her pod-player had been damaged, which drew a noticeable 'hmph!' from the clerk.

"(Let me take a closer look at it. Come back in about an hour.) He told her, as he now began to examine the damaged pod-player in earnest and started to fully disassemble it.

Exiting from the electronics shop, Laura came over to a bench where Mariko had taken a seat and was waiting for her.

"He said it'll be ready in about an hour." Laura told her.

"Well, since it looks like we've got some time to kill, let's go grab something to eat." Mariko said, as she stood back up with bags all in hand.

In response, Laura didn't say anything. But she did give an affirmative nod that indicated she was agreeable to Mariko's suggestion.

Heading further into the mall past several more shops and stores, Laura followed Mariko until they wound up at a pizza restaurant located within the Subnade, the Pizza Sandro. Once inside, they were both shown to a table in this modestly-dim eatery, where they could sit and watch as their pizza was being prepared.

Which would be fairly soon, since Mariko didn't waste any time in ordering for them. She told their waitress without need of a menu that they would be having the #7 topping-combination as soon as they were seated. But, while Mariko had chosen to order a fairly calorie-conserving beverage in the form of a melon and yogurt blended-soda, to try to at least offset some of this ample meal selection, such concerns obviously didn't even seem to occur to Laura. As evidenced when their waitress returned with their refreshments.

"(Here you go.)" The waitress said, as she carefully placed Mariko's drink from her carrying tray carefully down onto to the table in front of her. Then she placed the tray itself down onto the table and used both hands to slowly slide Laura's selections over to her.

Which were two oversized glasses, each filled almost to the brim with a generous mixture of chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and a small amount of milk.

As they sat in this cozy environment and watched when their pizza went into the restaurant's central brick oven, which their waitress had just pointed out to them and said would be ready shortly, Mariko watched in even greater amazement at the sight across from her. Laura, who while they had been waiting had gone to an outside vending machine and bought a couple of candy bars, now took them and proceeded to crush them up into smaller pieces over both of the glasses in front of her, stirring the broken-up chunks of chocolate candy in with the rest of what had become two ultra-chocolate milkshakes.

"My hips are getting nervous from me just looking at all of that." Mariko smilingly remarked, as Laura took her spoon and began digging in.

But without replying and remaining undaunted, Laura continued with this ravenous consumption of what was her third favorite vice, with her love of chocolate falling in closely behind her love of clothes and music as her new major life pre-occupations.

A few minutes later, just as Laura was down to the 1/3 mark of her second chocolate dessert, their pizza at last arrived. And while the topping choice of calamari, corn, and mayo jaga (a mayonnaise, bacon, potato mixture) would be a taste that someone unfamiliar with it might need some time to grow acquired to, Mariko noted how Laura didn't even question her as to what this particular combination actually consisted of?

"So, you enjoying everything?" Mariko curiously asked a few minutes later, having wanted to give Laura an opportunity to sample this example of her favorite local cuisine, but now was waiting for her to quickly ask for something else entirely on her pizza that was more along the lines of what she was probably used to eating back home in Bayville. Mariko was even fully prepared to have Laura 'freak-out' on her, much like what she had encountered with some of her old classmates back when they first visited her homeland with her several years ago.

"It's good." Was Laura's only and very brief response, as she had already devoured her first slice and quickly moved onto her second, both of which were still piping hot and would have left severe burns in the mouths of most other people.

What Mariko hadn't considered was that for someone who had grown up eating meals that consisted of strict rations of flavorless protein, carbohydrate, and fiber fortified-portions, whose sole purpose was to provide basic nourishment and nothing more, that all forms of real-world cuisine were something strange and new to her. But like everything else previously unfamiliar to her, Laura had learned to adapt to and had even come to look forward to some of these new experiences.

"You know, you really do have a pretty wicked fashion-sense." Mariko casually commented to Laura, just as she went to take a bite from her own now slightly-cooled slice of pizza.

"Really?" Laura looked up with a raised eyebrow and a mouthful of food and managed to mumble in response. And once again, a bit of defensiveness crept up in Laura's tone and through her demeanor as she waited for yet another sarcastic wisecrack to come at her from across the table.

"Yeah, of course. Not too many people I know could pull off that whole 'goth-circus' look, but it definitely works on you." Mariko further elaborated. To which, Laura didn't immediately respond.

Not because she had yet another mouthful of pizza, but because she was unsure of how to react to what Mariko had just said. Which was probably due to the fact that when comments were usually made about Laura's fashion sensibilities, most of the time they were coming from other individuals' who were the same age as her, who didn't live at the Xavier Institute, and who generally had something...less than nice to say about her unique clothing preferences.

"...thank you." Laura finally managed to get out, letting a rare small smile creep out and even began to blush a little at this unexpected compliment. Which she sensed was genuine, and for a change felt it was nice to be commended on a talent of hers that had nothing to do with her proficiency in the Danger Room or similar combat situations.

"You know, you're not quite the mini-Logan that I was expecting you to be." Mariko now added as she took another sip from her soda, with this remark also intended as an additional positive observation of Laura on her part. But Laura's reaction to this last bit of commentary was nowhere near as receptive as she had been just mere moments ago.

"That's what most people say." Laura replied, as she suddenly became far less cheerful, her entire self instantly pulling back into the guarded emotional-shell that Mariko had spent most of this afternoon slowly coaxing her out of.

A wall, which Laura had erected this time in response to her own feelings regarding the belief that she would never be able to overcome everyone elses' apparent disappointment when they realized that his clone really wasn't 'just like Logan'. That, even though there were some obvious similarities between them with regard to physical abilities, personality-wise Laura didn't see herself as ever feeling as socially adept or comfortable as Logan was around other people.

And especially, not to the point that those same people would ever see her as actually measuring up to the charismatic measuring stick that he had firmly established. That for her, it was sometimes just hard enough to manage to carry on anything resembling the most basic of conversations, and even that was something she had really had to practice at.

Which was also a paradoxical dilemma for Laura, who had grown up believing that her sole purpose in life had been to surpass her genetic original in every way conceivable, only to later find that there were still a few areas in which she lagged behind him considerably.

**xxx**

Several hours later as the day had ended and was now well into the evening, Mariko and Laura finally returned from their extended shopping trip. But not before having stopped in at a 100-yen shop in the mall first, so that they could pick up a couple of new toothbrushes and a few other basic essentials. Which, was then followed by another stop at a men's clothing store to grab a few other things specifically for Logan.

Who, being a fairly simple person to shop for, consisted of them selecting a couple pairs of jeans, some t-shirts, and a stylish new leather jacket that both Mariko and Laura agreed would look great on him.

"So what've you been up to, Big Poppa-san?" Mariko now humorously asked, as she and Laura entered her apartment with all hands completely full with bags that contained the spoils from their marathon-shopping excursion.

"Just makin' myself at home, M'iko." Logan replied, still seated in virtually the same spot in front of the television that he had been when they left, albeit with a huge smirk present on his face.

By 'making himself at home', Logan was referring to the half-full short glass in his hand and the empty bottle of sake now down at his side, along with another one next to it that was halfway there.

"Hope you don't mind." Logan now grinningly added as he sat up a little from his relaxed position.

"Of course not! You should know that by now." Mariko said, as she sat some of her heavier bags down on the floor just inside of her front door, "To be honest, I was expecting to come in and find you curled-up with that bottle underneath my dining table."

"Hell, night's still young, ain't it darlin'?" Logan laughingly replied, and then took another drink from the glass in his hand.

And as he did, he simultaneously caught a full-glimpse of Laura dressed in her newly bought clothing attire. Which, made him all the more glad that he had adopted his policy of usually refraining from making opinionated comments about fashion in general. But, it was also a feeling that was more than offset by the fact that he could clearly see that the younger girl was at least now in a much better mood.

"Then, I guess you'll have to find out for the both of us." Mariko told Logan, responding to his comment just a moment ago about how this night would ultimately turn out, as she removed her strap-buckle boots and then turned towards the general direction where her bedroom lay, "I've got to get an early start in the morning."

Motioning for Laura to come with her, Mariko wanted to show her guest to the spare bedroom where she would be turning in for the night. But first, they stopped together at a closet located in the adjoining hallway. Delving into this surprisingly deep and spacious storage area, Mariko went in to retrieve one of the extra futon bedding sets from within.

But while standing there with her, Laura's gaze had unexpectedly turned upward and became quickly fixed up above on a couple of items located on the wall behind them. The first was a framed and autographed promo poster from the Japanese release of world-famous singer Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor album. The second however was another, but much smaller, framed local newspaper cutout from a few years ago. Which was far more conspicuous in its presence thanks to its bolded headline and the subhead that followed below:

**(Who is Lady Torch?)**

(-_Representative for F4 deny any official_

_connection to mysterious new superheroine..._)

"Logan should remember where everything is from the last time he was here. He can grab this other futon when, and if, he decides to go to sleep tonight." Mariko now told Laura, pulling her attention back from these wall-mounted articles as she handed her a pillow and top-comforter, while carrying the rollout futon-mattress herself, "Let's go get you settled in."

Sliding open the paper-lined fusuma door at the guest room's entrance, Mariko went in with Laura to get everything set up on its tatami-mat flooring. Not that Laura was going to be doing that much sleeping herself either.

Thanks to what HYDRA and their torturous experimentation had done to her, Laura for the most part didn't sleep very much. Which was mainly due to the particularly vivid and nightmarish scenarios that she would often relive when her eyes closed. But, Laura also knew it had to do with something else, something that she happened to come across in a personnel file about herself that she uncovered during a break-in at one of HYDRA's operational facilities.

That as the result of a procedure that their top research scientists had performed on her, which in their evaluation log they had referred to as 'post-synaptic manipulation', her mind worked in intense unison with her body's mutant healing factor to efficiently speed-up its nightly recovery time and cut down the amount of sleep that she needed, to about 1/3 of what was usually required by most others.

After laying out this conventional bedding set, which looked like a thin but cushioned floor-mattress and was very similar to the one that Mariko herself regularly slept on in her own room, she prepared to go and get her own aforementioned futon also ready for tonight.

"Well, I'm just down the hall if you need anything. I'll see you in the morning." Mariko said to Laura with a spontaneous, yet coincidentally well-timed yawn, as she gave the room one more quick visual inspection to make sure that she hadn't forgotten anything else that Laura might require tonight. Then, just as she was turning to make her exit, Mariko once again came to a sudden stop when she heard Laura say yet another surprising thing to her.

"I'm sorry."

Turning back around, Mariko saw Laura still standing there in the center of this small room, having by now removed the red coat that she had on over her black and gold-trimmed corset and now had her arms folded over in front of her with her general focus directed off to one side.

"Sorry about what?" Mariko curiously asked in response, as she took a few steps back over towards Laura.

"About...yelling at you earlier." Laura clarified, as she continued standing there and started to somewhat nervously fidget in place.

Apologizing, like so many things in her life, was something that didn't come naturally to Laura. But, it was another social-skill that she had learned nonetheless, along with the understanding of when it was necessary to apply such decorum.

Particularly, since she and Professor Xavier had had a lengthy discussion on the subject after an angry outburst of hers had reduced another student to tears shortly following her arrival at his school. That, while Professor Xavier was understanding of the fact that she was trying to deal with some rather complex emotional and personal issues as best as she could, he let it be known that he would also like to see her put forth an earnest effort to be more respectful and sociable towards others. Which, included her remembering to apologize for unfortunate lapses in verbal self-control.

Realizing that with the way that things had gone down during her confrontation with Viper in Madripoor, and the resulting anger at herself for letting her arch-nemesis escape, that she was starting to fall back into her old and aggressively anti-social mindset. Laura knew that she definitely did not want to slip any further into that emotionally unhealthy comfort zone, and was one reason why she was now reaching out to Mariko, all in an effort to uphold her end of the agreements that she had made with the Professor during their months of intense psychotherapy together.

"It's alright, kiddo." Mariko replied in acceptance of Laura's attempt to make amends, as she looked down at her and put a reassuring hand up on her shoulder. And in that same moment Mariko realized that she had just made her own slip of the tongue, albeit an instant too late, with her 'kiddo' reference.

The reason why Laura usually became so perturbed at being referred to as a child in any sense of the word, was that she saw it as some kind of sick joke. Especially, since she felt that she'd never be able to look at the world through a child's eyes after everything she'd been through. It served as a harsh and painful reminder of what she had been cheated out of and had become something of an emotional sore-spot for her. But rather than blow up right now in an explosive fit of rage, Laura instead responded with another of her recently acquired coping mechanisms.

With a small, humorous grin on her face upon recognizing Mariko's sudden realization of her own verbal misstep.

But, in that same instant Laura froze in her tracks and her demeanor once again changed like a switch being flipped. Although, this time it was in reaction to something that she now sensed externally, rather than from any internalized stress.

"**We've got incoming**!"

It was a sentiment loudly uttered almost simultaneously by both Laura and Logan as their enhanced-hearing picked up on several objects outside that were all coming at them at a rapid aerial velocity. And no sooner were those words spoken, than a number of thunderous crashes boomed from within Mariko's living room.

Rushing back in there, Mariko and Laura were met by a sight of tremendous principal damage to most of the room's exterior-side wall. But even more out of place than the huge gaping hole that had demolished this part of her home almost entirely, were the individuals who had burst into this private residence through it and who were now standing in there with them.

"(**Your day of reckoning is upon you, woman**!)"

Delivering a threat that was as unveiled as it was grave in its tone, it was immediately clear that these five men now standing before Mariko, Logan, and Laura all meant precisely what their preeminent had just said. But beyond mere words, their intentions were made all the more apparent from their distinctive appearance, with each man looking as though they had undergone some sort of radical physical augmentation that had left them endowed with cybernetic prosthetics replacing their extremities, and with various electronic attachments on other parts of their limbs and bodies.

A procedure that in turn had also granted them near superhuman abilities, as evidenced by what they had just done to Mariko's apartment with hardly an effort. And while their oyabun had dubbed them his new personal cyborg samurai, his Cyburai, Logan and Mariko quickly recognized who they really were underneath these new mechanical enhancements.

It was from a violent confrontation that had taken place also during Logan's last visit here several months ago, which had seen Mariko take on these men, Hiro, Fuse, Katsutaro, Koichi, and Toshi in a local bar all by herself. And it was a conflict whose origins stemmed from an ongoing feud between Mariko and their Lord Tatsuo that went back even further, which had to do with Tatsuo's involvement in the region's illegal sex-slave trade. Particularly with regard to its underage importation and exportation, and Mariko's promise of what she would do to his flourishing criminal empire if he didn't cease his illicit activities.

It wound up costing him the monetary equivalent of over half of his total holdings and other assets in the form of illegal local businesses and storage warehouses, when he decided to call Miss Yashida's bluff and they all mysteriously went up in flames soon afterwards.

This was the reason why when Mariko, whom hadn't been seen in public for some time now was spotted out and about today shopping with a young girl, in which a picture snapped of them by a loyal informant later conclusively identified the latter as the formerly known Weapon Hydra, that Tatsuo altered his original timetable for obtaining total retribution against her for his financial losses and for reclaiming his subordinates' loss of honor to her, decreeing that now would be the time for them to exact his revenge against Mariko. And, to also collect on the considerable bounty out on her friends, along with the associative prestige that would come with such an accomplishment from the other Yakuza families within the Japanese underworld syndicate.

Without any further words being exchanged, not that they were needed at this point, each of these super-powered enforcers would let their actions now speak as they all struck at their targets with reckless abandon with two zeroing in on Mariko, two going after Logan, and the fifth taking on Laura.

Although, they may have bitten off far more than they could handle against this trio, even with taking their technologically-advanced upgrades into consideration. Which was confirmed in rather short order when Toshi, who was physically the largest of his Cyburai brethren, assumed that his raw muscular bulk and greatly enhanced strength would be more than enough to allow him to easily overwhelm and quickly pommel this diminutive girl now before him.

But the tables were immediately turned on Toshi when, before he knew what had hit him, he was struck by a rabid whirlwind in human guise that pounced on him and unleashed herself with claws flailing at and around him from seemingly every direction, slashing at the cybernetic enhancements that had been so painstakingly bestowed upon him. It was a miscalculation borne of not knowing that X-23 wouldn't be intimidated by him, what with her having spent much of her life training against opponents who were also mechanical and MUCH larger than him, and one that he now paid for as she cleaved through the bronze armor-plating that made up much of the uniform covering most his body. With this opponent now incapacitated and seemingly disposed of in short order, X-23 went to turn her attention to her friends' and their current ordeals. Although, it would turn out to be an underestimation now made on her part.

Since with her back now turned to Toshi, she wasn't able to see as his internal automated repair system began to rapidly undo the superficial damage that she had just caused to him.

Meanwhile, Mariko found herself double-teamed and outnumbered, as she struggled to narrowly avoid the combined energy discharges being brashly fired at her from Katsutaro and Fuse. But rather than continue with this defensive strategy, Mariko would instead go on the offensive against them.

As Sunfire. Former X-Man, and current scourge to the criminal underworld.

Directing a monstrous heat-blast of her own back at Katsutaro and Fuse, the two men just narrowly dodged being totally engulfed in the flames of this show of force, leaving them modestly singed and putting them now on the defensive.

To which X-23 was at first shocked to see, with this being another decided turn of the tables in relation to her and Mariko's interactions going back to earlier this afternoon. But upon closer inspection, she suddenly remembered seeing a face that did look a lot like Mariko's, albeit much younger. It was in a file listed only under a codename, but did describe a mutant-power analysis similar to what she'd just seen, located in the Institute's roster database under a folder marked 'Inactive'.

"You have powers just like my roommate." X-23 said with an impressed tone, as she came over to Sunfire while her two opponents' were taking a moment to try to regroup.

And with a smile Sunfire, whom by now was glowing incandescently from the pure thermal-plasma power coursing through and around her own body, made a reply to X-23's comparison.

"Well, can your roommate do this?"

In that same moment, X-23 watched as Sunfire used her explosive power to launch herself from a stand-still position, accelerating like a spinning rocket at a frightening velocity right towards one of the Cyburai.

"I'll have to ask her when I get back." X-23 replied with a raised eyebrow to Sunfire's inquiry, as the flame-wielding hero's propulsive force knocked one of these intruders clear across her living room and she took another along with her through the giant hole in her wall, continuing on with him towards a specified trajectory outside.

Where Sunfire would use the heat-aura now enveloping them both to completely short-out the circuitry that composed and controlled Fuse's internal weapons system, before quickly stopping in mid-air to release him. The tremendous momentum that she had built up would carry him over a few more blocks, to a hard and painful landing that awaited him in a nearby vacant expanse of pavement down below.

Meanwhile, Wolverine had been keeping himself busy tangling with the remaining two members of this hi-tech hit squad, as Hiro and Koichi let loose a non-stop barrage of deadly energy blasts from their hands at him. And as they gave him this up close and personal demonstration of their new cyber-enhancements full capabilities, Logan also recognized the familiar, one-of-a-kind design schematics used in their construction. It made his blood boil all the more from the unmistakable knowledge that there was only one person who could be responsible for helping to enable this chaos now being unleashed.

As Wolverine continued on in this physical back and forth with them, employing a counterbalance of offensive and defensive strikes that tipped more to the offensive side of that scale, Sunfire suddenly returned through the opening in her wall that she had exited from just moments ago. Landing in her living room, or what now remained of it, she came to stand right beside a poised and crouching X-23. Who had been watching Wolverine this entire time, and seeing that he had things well under control with these two opponents, felt that it would be disrespectful of her to intercede. But in the heat of battle, things can and often do change in the blink of an eye.

"This kinda reminds you of the old days, don't it?" Wolverine now quipped with Mariko, as he traded shots with Hiro and Koichi, both of whom had learned from the folly of their first fallen teammate and were far more careful in their current attack stratagem.

"Guys popping up from out of nowhere and trying to kill us? Yeah, exactly like I remember!" Sunfire humorously replied, as she took a brief moment to pause and observe as Logan's claws made incidental contact with these two fast moving targets, while Hiro and Koichi were able to also inflict a number of partially-searing volleys upon him.

Although in all of their cases, their healing/repair capabilities were restoring these relatively minor injuries almost as fast as they were being received.

"(The _gaijin _Pierce swore that these enhancements would allow us to soundly defeat all of our enemies!)" Koichi now remarked, his frustration with this apparent stalemate after having been forced to resort to such desperate measures as to become a machine-like monster in order for them to redeem themselves in their lord's eyes, now seeping out through his own emotional armor.

"(We have all the power that is necessary. We need simply turn it loose fully against our enemies.)" Hiro more calmly replied, as he agilely dodged one of Wolverine's claw strikes.

"(Then, let us not waste any further time!)" A third and nearly forgotten voice said, as he from seemingly out of nowhere came up and completely leveled Wolverine with a thunderous double axe-hammer blow from behind.

But after such an action, all who remained in here wouldn't make the mistake again of forgetting the mountainous Toshi. Most especially, the person whom felt fully responsible for what had just happened after having thought that she'd done enough to take him out of this fight, but now saw that he was obviously still very much in it.

"**Nobody does that to my...Logan**!" X-23 shouted, as she popped her claws with a growl and had every intention of going over to do far more to Toshi than merely just incapacitate him this time.

But as X-23 and Sunfire were both about to go and throw themselves back into this fray, along with a once again conscious Katsutaro from over on the other side of this room, they all stopped in their tracks when yet another explosive element introduced itself into this conflict, albeit this time from long-range.

With another blinding flash of light and a deafening wave of sound, which this time wasn't caused by Sunfire, this entire apartment was rocked when an explosive-laden arrow hit and detonated upon impact as it struck Toshi from behind, knocking all in here who were standing completely off of their feet. It was a sneak attack that could be seen as ironic, given Toshi's own use of similar furtive tactics just a moment ago. But it was a maneuver far more fatal in its results, in that this man Toshi had been reduced to several scattered and smoldering remnants.

A second of these custom-made arrows with large, conical-shaped heads then came in and once again reached their mark, killing Katsutaro in much the same manner as his Cyburai brother had been destroyed just seconds before. In that moment it became plainly apparent that these predators had now fallen prey to someone who, even with such a low-tech response contrasting their own state of the art components, had proven to be just as ruthless as these men made of flesh and machine had believed themselves to be.

"Great. Now I'm going to have to pay to get cyborg-bits scraped off of the walls." Sunfire said, as she dropped the protective heat-barrier that she had erected around herself and X-23 to filter out the flying shrapnel coming at them from these explosions, "What walls I have left, that is."

As the smoke cleared in this devastated dwelling, Logan's healing factor worked hard to help him recover from the injuries that he had received at the hands of the Cyburai, as well as the collateral debris inflicted upon him from the explosions going off around him. Meanwhile, Mariko and Laura noticed that the remaining two perpetrators of this over-the-top home invasion were nowhere to be seen. It was if they had mysteriously disappeared into thin air, a phenomenon that for Logan and Laura was becoming an all too common occurrence as of late.

"Well, you might wanna take up that part of the clean-up bill with her, M'iko." Logan coughed and remarked to Mariko and her comment, as he was finally able to get up to one knee, but just barely.

From this kneeling stance, Logan then pointed out through the original hole that had been made in Mariko's walls, his finger leading their gaze over towards a lone figure that was standing atop a nearby rooftop still holding a shortbow in her right hand and had a quiver full of arrows slung around from her left shoulder.

A lone figure, whom even under these lights of night and its opposing shadows, they could see was clad in a most unique outfit entirely in red, as well as the glint in this sparse lighting from a pair of dagger-shaped weapons hanging from her sides just above her hips.

A woman, whom men have come to know, and know to fear, at just the mention of her singularly ominous name.

A woman, named Elektra...

**xxx**

Next Chapter- **Bad Company**...


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